U.S. Assistance in the Sixty Years After the Cuban Missile Crisis: On the Implications of Vladimir Putin’s Nuclear Threats
Last week, Biden delivered a stark warning about the dangers of Putin’s nuclear threats, invoking the prospect of “Armageddon.” But multiple US officials have said the comment was not based on any new intelligence about Putin’s intentions or changes in Russia’s nuclear posture.
It was from the Cuban Missile crisis that Mr. Biden’s logic came to mind in his remarks at the fund-raiser. Sixty years ago this week, John F. Kennedy struck a secret deal with the Soviet premier in order to eliminate American missiles from Turkey.
With that deal, which came to light only later, a disaster that could have killed tens of millions of Americans and untold numbers of Soviet citizens was averted.
And a second senior administration official provided the following summary of air defense aid provided to Ukraine from the US: “We have transferred more than 1,400 Stinger anti-air systems to Ukraine, as well as air surveillance and multi-mission radars. Slovakia was able to transfer a critical S0-300 system to Ukraine in April, thanks to our assistance. President Biden announced a new assistance package forUkraine in August that included 8 new NASAMS, the National Advanced Surface to Air Missile Systems. We’ll continue to give Ukraine what it needs.
The US had not delivered NASAMS to Ukraine as of late September. At the time, he was a brigadier. Gen. Patrick Ryder said two systems were expected to be delivered in the next two months, with the remaining six to arrive at an undetermined date.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken also spoke with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba on Monday to reiterate US support following the deadly strikes. Zelensky is expected to speak during the emergency video conference with the G7 leaders.
The Russian launch of a cruise missile attack on Kiev on Monday: a response to Kyiv’s “terrorism” by Vladimir Putin and his aides
Russia launched a total of 84 cruise missiles against targets across Ukraine on Monday, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said in a Facebook post.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said the strikes were a response to what he described as acts of “terrorism” by Kyiv. He blamed the explosion on the Kerch Bridge on Ukraine’s “special services” and a list of other alleged crimes.
In a post on Telegram, Medvedev – who served as President of Russia between 2008 and 2012 – said: “The Ukrainian state in its current configuration … will pose a constant, direct and clear threat to Russia. The ultimate goal of our future actions should be to dismantle the political regime of Ukrainian, which is what I think our future actions should be.
There is a deputy head of Russia’s Security Council who recently said he thinks Moscow should aim for the complete dismantlement of Zelensky’s regime.
John Kirby said Monday that more support for Ukraine will likely be announced in the near future.
Kirby said that he is feeling the pressure at home and overseas but only he can say how he will react to it.
Russia carried out a test of an intercontinental ballistic missile that appears to have failed around the time President Joe Biden was in Ukraine on Monday, according to two US officials familiar with the matter.
Russia notified the U.S. about the launch through deconfliction lines, one official said. A second official said that the US did not see the test as an indication of any risk to the country.
The test of the Satan II missile, which could deliver multiple nuclear warheads, appears to have failed, officials said. It has been successfully tested before, and the US believes Russian President Vladimir Putin would have highlighted the test in his address to the nation.
Instead, Putin made no mention of the launch in the speech that lasted an hour and 45 minutes. He did, however, formally declare that Russia will be suspending his country’s participation in the New START nuclear arms reduction treaty with the United States, imperiling the last remaining pact that regulates the world’s two largest nuclear arsenals.
CNN initially reported the apparent test occurred while Biden was in Ukraine based off information from sources. After the story was published one of the officials said the test happened when Biden was in the country. The second source had told CNN that the test was on Monday without providing any more specific timing.
The timing of the test suggests that the US and Russia were communicating through several different channels earlier this week for deconfliction purposes – US officials also notified the Russians on Sunday night, hours before Biden’s visit to Kyiv, that the president would be making the trip to the Ukrainian capital, national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on Monday.
When reporters asked the Kremlin about the reports, they wouldn’t comment. The matter was being handled by the Ministry of Defense, according to Peskov.
Then-Pentagon press secretary John Kirby called the 2022 test “routine, and it was not a surprise. It was not seen as a threat to the US or its allies.
NORAD intercepts Russian fighters and bombers as they flew in the Alaska Air Defense Identification Zone last week: General Mark Milley and the Russian jets
“Russia is now a global pariah and the world remains inspired by Ukrainian bravery and resilience. Russia has lost in a range of ways, General Mark Milley said last week.
NORAD scrambled fighter jets when Russian fighters and bombers flew near Alaska in a row last week. The Russian aircraft remained outside US and Canadian sovereign airspace, which extends 12 miles from the coastline, but they flew in or near Alaska’s Air Defense Identification Zone, which is up to 200 miles from the coastline.
Two NORAD F-16s intercepted TU-95 bombers and SU-35 fighters that had already entered the ADIZ last Monday. On the same day, NORAD F-35s also intercepts the Tu-95 and SU-30 fighters.
NORAD does not consider the Russian flights a threat, nor does it consider the aerial objects seen around Alaska and Canada recently to be a threat.