We support our Publishers and Content Creators. You can view this story on their website by CLICKING HERE.

Last week we learned that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy effectively endorsed Donald Trump’s strategy to end the Ukraine-Russia war quickly. 

“It is very important for us to have a just peace, so that we do not feel that we have lost the best for the sake of the injustice that has been imposed on you. The war will end, but there is no exact date. Of course, with the policies of this team, which will now lead the White House, the war will end sooner. This is their approach, their promise to their society, and for them it is also very important,” said Zelenskyy.

Advertisement

This came on the heels of reports that Trump warned Putin after his election victory not to escalate the war. 

Well, Putin may not have to escalate the war, because Joe Biden, in a major U.S. policy shift as he prepares to leave office, has made a move to escalate it himself. According to a report from the Associated Press, Biden “has for the first time authorized the use of U.S.-supplied long-range missiles by Ukraine to strike inside Russia, according to one U.S. official and three people familiar with the matter.”

The decision is a major U.S. policy shift and comes as Biden is about to leave office and incoming President-elect Donald Trump has said he would bring about a swift end to the war and has expressed skepticism over continued support by the United States.

The weapons are likely to be used in response to North Korea’s decision to send thousands of troops to Russia in support of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, according to one of the people. The official and the people familiar with the matter were not authorized to discuss the decision publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and many of his Western supporters have been pressing Biden for months to allow Ukraine to strike military targets inside Russia with Western-supplied missiles, saying the U.S. ban had made it impossible for Ukraine to try to stop Russian attacks on its cities and electrical grids.

Some supporters have argued that this and other U.S. constraints could cost Ukraine the war. The debate has become a source of disagreement among Ukraine’s NATO allies.

Advertisement

Biden had stayed firm in his opposition to escalation, and I can’t help but wonder if this change in policy, so close to his leaving the White House, is an attempt to undermine Trump’s plan to end the war. 

Recommended: Remember Those 51 Hunter Biden Laptop Deniers? They May Lose Their Security Clearances

Putin previously said that if the U.S. supplied long-range missiles to Ukraine he would take it to mean “all NATO countries are officially at war with Russia.”

Is Joe Biden trying to set up Donald Trump to have to manage a war that Biden, not Trump, got us into?

It sure does feel like it.