On the Ukraine war front, there has been another uptick in saber-rattling between Moscow and Washington this week. Both events carry a fair amount of ironic symbolism, which is the point at which we find ourselves in this protracted conflict.
Washington has transferred thousands of weapons it seized from Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp (IRGC) to Ukraine. The weapons were seized by the U.S. Navy en route to Yemen, where Iran has been fighting a proxy war with Saudi Arabia (though this conflict venue has cooled off somewhat following a Saudi-Iran restoration of diplomatic relations). This is the blowback of Iran's drone sponsorship of Russia on the Ukrainian battlefield. Tit-for-tat gets very specific in this case.
Putin's additional saber-rattling response was to claim to have successfully tested its previously failed Burevestnik nuclear-powered cruise missile (NATO calls it "Skyfall"). The Burevestnik, if truly successfully developed to launch, is said to be able to strike targets in the U.S. The allegedly successful testing of this missile was also accompanied by Putin's indication that Moscow may move to revoke its 1996 ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban treaty.
On the battlefield, this week in Ukraine, Russia reportedly moved its Black Sea fleet warships out of Crimea under threat of Ukrainian missile strikes. This has not been independently confirmed, and the initial reports were based on satellite images. The British Defense Ministry…
On the Ukraine war front, there has been another uptick in saber-rattling between Moscow and Washington this week. Both events carry a fair amount of ironic symbolism, which is the point at which we find ourselves in this protracted conflict.
Washington has transferred thousands of weapons it seized from Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp (IRGC) to Ukraine. The weapons were seized by the U.S. Navy en route to Yemen, where Iran has been fighting a proxy war with Saudi Arabia (though this conflict venue has cooled off somewhat following a Saudi-Iran restoration of diplomatic relations). This is the blowback of Iran's drone sponsorship of Russia on the Ukrainian battlefield. Tit-for-tat gets very specific in this case.
Putin's additional saber-rattling response was to claim to have successfully tested its previously failed Burevestnik nuclear-powered cruise missile (NATO calls it "Skyfall"). The Burevestnik, if truly successfully developed to launch, is said to be able to strike targets in the U.S. The allegedly successful testing of this missile was also accompanied by Putin's indication that Moscow may move to revoke its 1996 ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban treaty.
On the battlefield, this week in Ukraine, Russia reportedly moved its Black Sea fleet warships out of Crimea under threat of Ukrainian missile strikes. This has not been independently confirmed, and the initial reports were based on satellite images. The British Defense Ministry did appear to corroborate these reports, though not definitively. Also this week, on Thursday, a Russian strike on a village in eastern Ukraine killed 51 people gathering to mourn a fallen Ukrainian soldier. At the same time, Russia has accused Ukraine of using cluster munitions in an attack on the border town of Rylsk (Russia's Kursk region). One person was reportedly injured in the alleged attack.
Additionally, Russia is also making indirect threats to Georgia, via an announcement by the leader of Abkhazia (a breakaway region of Georgia) that Russia plans to establish a military base on the territory. This will be considered an occupation of Georgian territory. But this is also a reminder to Azerbaijan and Moldova. Partly, what Moscow hopes to express with this indirect announcement is that even though it is busy in Ukraine and failed to step in on behalf of Armenia during the Azeri takeover of Nagorno-Karabakh, Moldova would be unwise to consider making a move (in Azeri fashion) to take over its pro-Russian breakaway region of Transnistria.
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