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US President Joe Biden
Photo: Susan Walsh/AP
The New York Times has just described the US government's strategy in the Ukraine war as follows: The aim is to successfully "boil the frog": the aim is to increase military support for Ukraine steadily, but so slowly and increased moderately so that the Kremlin does not feel provoked by taking too big a step into a violent counterattack.
However, the recent successes of the Ukrainian troops on the ground not only seem to spark joy in the US capital, but also concern about Putin's reaction.
The newspaper quoted a senior US official as saying that "Ukraine's successes on the battlefield could leave Russia feeling cornered" (read the full article here).
Joe Biden is now responding with a dual strategy.
On the one hand, the US President has also rejected Ukrainian demands for even more powerful weapons, as the New York Times writes.
On the other hand, he issued a clear warning to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
In a TV interview, the US President warned his counterpart against the use of chemical weapons or tactical nuclear weapons.
The US government is also reluctant to use heavier weapons
Such a step by the Russian side will inevitably "change the face of the war" in a way that has not been the case since World War II, Biden told CBS on Friday evening (local time).
"Don't do it, don't do it, don't do it," Biden said to Putin.
Otherwise, Moscow will “become even more of an outsider than ever before,” Biden said in the interview.
In this case, the US President announced a tough reaction from Washington.
Tactical nuclear weapons have a shorter range and a significantly lower yield than strategic nuclear weapons.
Since invading Ukraine, Russia has repeatedly threatened to use nuclear weapons.
In the past few days, Ukraine has achieved great success in a counter-offensive against Russian troops in the east of the country.
Putin, on the other hand, said the war against Ukraine was going according to plan.
"The Russian army is always taking over new areas," he said on Friday.
"We're in no hurry."
Among other things, the Ukrainian leadership turned to Washington with a request for the delivery of even more powerful missiles.
This includes ATACMS missiles.
These can be fired with Himars systems, but have a significantly longer range.
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