Russia-Ukraine War (continuing)

Meanwhile iranian drones and north korean shells are raining down in Ukraine. While north korean troops are fighting Ukrainian forces on behalf of Putin.

Russian forces had some run with every arm free whilst calling any retaliation an act of escalation. About time Ukraine got some fingers free if not for a few months before Trump.

Russia don't play fair and that's the highest understatement going. But they never had a fair fight replayed on them back. The hollowering now is just that they've been found out as they can only fight someone if they tie their hands behind their back first.

On the approval of missike strikes the question is what will Russia's response be and whether or not they respond immediately or after a strike?

They've a number of obvious options and it probably depends on the nature of the permission (are there very restrictive conditions on use?) - they can do nothing, they can do a "quiet" response (a cyber attack or some such), sabotage (cables, pipelines) or some sort of demonstration strike on Ukraine with a nuclear weapon or other form of WMD.

I think WMD is unlikely as it's just not in Russia's interest.

Overall it will help Ukraine but without doubt the notion of NATO effectively firing missiles in to Russian territory makes the whole situation a lot more dangerous imo.

One thing that might mitigate against some extreme response from the Russian perspective is the knowledge Biden is on the way out.

Don't believe myself that the decision to restrict the use of long range US weapons by Ukraine had anything to do with putin's feelings. Can only speculate but maybe it has been a behind the scenes agreement that weapons sent by the USA would remain restricted as long as countries sending supplies to putin would also in some ways restrict what they would send. Maybe north Korean troops attacking Ukrainian forces was enough of an escalation by the forces supporting putin to negate any such agreement. Could also be simply a calculation that with the amount of missiles available it was decided that Ukraine would be better off initially only targeting putin's forces actually in their territory rather than spreading the targets too widely and having less of an impact on the front lines.

How many "escalations" has Russia done (for free) since 2022 now, I think I have lost track? Biggest one being getting Kim the Mad King to send support troops.

Seems our Russian sympathetic friends are really riled up. Must mean the decision is a good one.

Glad to see it.

NATO? Do you mean USA?

Olaf Scholz is looking worse and worse for not sending the Taurus.

The ATACMS (with the aide of some high resolution cameras on satellites) could potentially break the Russian defensive lines in the Kursk region. We could see some large territorial gains into Russia. Kursk city could be occupied. How many more miles to Moscow?

This is bringing the war back home to Russia.

Want it to stop?

Then leave Ukraine

Some serious gnashing of teeth here from the usual suspects!

It is ridiculous though, Russia can escalate to the moon apparently (and those aiding Ukraine can never reply). I suppose that's what loads of nuclear weapons does for you (though maybe Russia should try and remember they aren't the only people on this planet with them).

They failed to "win" their war on their own, and they have many 3rd parties quite deeply involved in the invasion now, giving them this kind of aid, keeping the war going on.

Afair, they supply targetting help to the Houthis too, as part of their grey zone attacks on US/Europe on multiple fronts.

I almost hope they are dumb and arrogant enough to carry out a direct attack of some kind on the US.

If they cause enough harm, it might create serious blowback on them that even a friendly "Manchurian candidate" coming into power won't necessarily be able to stave off.

It's announced and going to happen.

In my opinion it's an excellent idea. It allows Ukraine to further strike back at it's invader (something they already do with their own missiles)

There's no magic bullet to change course of the war, but it will certainly help. Russia will have a massive headache having to move logistic centres, arms dumps, etc out of the way. Likewise will have to employ many more resources to defend key sites such as military airports.

Russia can respond (weakly) via Iran/Houthis but they won't be striking NATO ships.

The rest of your post is an extension of that fantasy about Iran/Houthi's striking NATO ships which won't be happening.

I can see this good news for Ukraine has triggered the usual suspects.

A slight bit worried about Putins implied threat of nukes

As opposed to Russias continued attacks and now getting troops from North Korea?

Hopefully these arms can do maximum damage to the Russians, and they have plenty of time to put them to work. Make hay while the sunshine’s.