West is playing Russian Nuclear roulette

The Pentagon has given the White House the green light to provide Ukraine with long-range Tomahawk missiles after assessing that it would not negatively impact US stockpiles, leaving the final political decision in President Donald Trump’s hands, according to three US and European officials familiar with the matter, CNN reports.

Trump said earlier this month during a working lunch with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House that he would rather not provide the missiles to Ukraine because “we don’t want to be giving away things that we need to protect our country.”

The Joint Staff informed the White House of its assessment earlier this month, just before Trump met with Zelensky who has been pushing for the missiles to more effectively target oil and energy facilities deep inside Russia. Tomahawks have a range of around 1,000 miles.

The assessment buoyed the US’ European allies, who believe that the US now has fewer excuses not to provide the missiles, two European officials said. Trump also said just days before meeting Zelensky that the US has “a lot of Tomahawks” that it could potentially give to Ukraine.

US and European officials were surprised, therefore, when Trump dramatically changed his tune days later, saying during opening remarks at a White House working lunch with Zelensky that the US “needs” the Tomahawks. He then told Zelensky behind closed doors that the US would not be providing them — at least not yet.

Trump’s decision came one day after he spoke by phone to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who told Trump that Tomahawks could hit major Russian cities like Moscow and St. Petersburg – would have no significant impact on the battlefield but would damage the US-Russia relationship, CNN has reported.

The White House and Pentagon did not return requests for comment.

Trump has not taken the missiles off the table altogether, sources previously told CNN, and the administration has drawn up plans to provide them to Ukraine quickly should Trump give the order.

While the Pentagon doesn’t have concerns about stockpiles, US defense officials are still grappling with how Ukraine would train on and deploy the missiles, officials said. There are still several operational issues that would need to be resolved for Ukraine to be able to use the missiles effectively, the sources added.

One outstanding question is how Ukraine would fire the missiles if the US provided them. Tomahawks are most commonly launched from surface ships or submarines, but Ukraine’s Navy is severely depleted, so the missiles would likely need to be launched on land. The Marine Corps and Army have developed ground-based launchers that could be provided to Ukraine.

Russia wants the world to know it has a brand-new method for annihilating its enemies with their Poseidon nuclear-powered, nuclear-armed unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV). Designed as a second-strike weapon, this massive autonomous torpedo is designed to threaten key coastal infrastructure of a hypothetical enemy — presumably the United States. This system is designed to generate radioactive tsunamis along the coastline of the enemy country, meaning this weapon is a true nightmare producing system.

Putin has been talking about this system more publicly ever since the Trump administration floated providing Tomahawk cruise missiles to Ukraine in their ongoing war against Russia, ‘The National Interest’ stresses.

Moscow claims that it could be used to create massive radioactive damage to key ports and cities. What’s more, because it is a UUV that has seemingly unlimited endurance, the weapon is incredibly difficult to detect and intercept.

The weapon can be fired from specific Russian naval platforms, such as the Belgorod-class submarine. Meanwhile, ABC reports that Russian officials claim the weapon is an unparalleled success based upon multiple tests. On October 29, Russian leader Vladimir Putin announced the most recent successful powered test of the Poseidon — implicitly a reaction to the deterioration in relations between Russia and the West.

Poseidon uses a compact nuclear reactor/liquid-metal reactor giving it very long range — effectively “unlimited” range for mission profiles. Meanwhile, it is believed that the weapon travels at speeds up to around 100 knots and operates at depths as far down as 1,000 meters.

Even if Poseidon’s capabilities are overstated by the Russians, this system represents an entirely new form of strategic weapon in that it is both nuclear-powered and a drone. Therefore, Poseidon purposely complicates naval defenses.

The fact of the matter is that the Russians do not feel as though they should be hemmed in by the West anymore. Since the end of the Cold War, Moscow believes it was made to endure endless humiliations at the hands of the Western powers. Ukraine was the final strategic straw.

Hence, the Poseidon is not just a new nuclear weapon. It is a symbol of Russian power projection and of Russia’s ability to overmatch the West with their apocalyptic weapons.

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