Did Democrats Just Start WW3 for Trump?

On November 17, 2024, President Joe Biden finalized a decision allowing Ukraine to use longer-range weapons to strike deep within Russian territory, as Moscow started deploying North Korean soldiers along the Ukrainian border.  

Ukraine has always implored the United States to allow the use of American weapons to strike bases within Russia that Putin’s army uses to launch attacks.

On November 19, Ukraine struck the Russian regions of Bryansk and Kursk with six U.S.-made Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) warheads, followed by another attack on November 21 leveraging British-made Storm Shadow cruise missiles.

Moscow responded by firing a new hypersonic intercontinental ballistic missile in test mode into Ukraine, striking the Ukrainian defense industrial complex in Dnepropetrovsk, and marking a significant escalation.

While long-awaited, allowing Ukraine to use longer-range weapons to strike targets deep within Russia at the last minute, when Ukraine is reportedly losing the war, will not significantly affect the outcome. 

According to Ret. U.S. Army Lt. Col. Robert Maginnis, it only enrages Putin and puts President Trump in a bad position at the start of his presidency. It also complicates Trump’s plan for a swift end to the Russo-Ukraine conflict, which Trump promised during the campaigns and laid the groundwork for during his recent call with Putin.

Shortly after the Russian attack, President Putin warned countries supporting Ukraine that an attack involving their weapons could prompt retaliatory strikes.

“We consider ourselves entitled to use our weapons against military facilities of those countries that allow to use their weapons against our facilities,” Putin said.

Putin also noted that Russia has voluntarily and unilaterally refrained from deploying “intermediate-range and shorter-range missiles until US weapons of this kind appear in any region of the world.”

The Russian leader also asserted that “further deployment of intermediate-range and shorter-range missiles will depend on the actions of the United States and its satellites.”

However, those in Biden’s camp believe that the Ukraine War can only be resolved through Kyiv’s decisive victory through continued support and exhaustion of Russian forces through a continued war effort. 

However, Russia continues to outdo the West in the production of weapons and overwhelm Ukraine by bringing more manpower into the war. China has also started providing lethal support to Russia which also continues to receive weapons from North Korea and Iran.

Similarly, Russia recently revised its nuclear doctrine allowing the military to use nuclear weapons if a non-nuclear country like Ukraine backed by a nuclear power, like the United States, attacks. Russia’s parliament voted to accept annexed Ukrainian regions as part of the mainland. 

Putin’s Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov also warned that authorizing Ukraine to use US-made weapons to strike deep within Russia, signifies the United States’ direct involvement in the Ukraine War, thus escalating the conflict. 

Meanwhile, Trump’s camp has already criticized Biden’s unilateral authorization of Ukraine to strike within Russia a few days before leaving office and not having to deal with the consequences of his decisions.

“The Military Industrial Complex seems to want to make sure they get World War 3 going before my father has a chance to create peace and save lives,”  Donald Trump Jr. posted on X.

Similarly, Ret. Col. Maginnis warned that “What we don’t need to do at this late hour in the Biden administration, is to exacerbate a pretty bad situation that, perhaps, has a chance of resolving itself in a peaceful way in the near future.”

Whether Russia lives up to its threat remains to be seen, but the country has always shocked the West. It also creates a significant escalation, potentially leading to World War III, for Trump to deal with.