On May 30, NBC news reported that Joe Biden “gave Ukraine permission to use American weapons to strike inside Russia.” Biden authorized this measure “quietly” and did not issue a statement.

But Biden’s order is a momentous escalation. It greatly increases the possibility of direct combat between two nuclear-armed powers, the U.S. and Russia, and the extreme danger of that combat escalating into nuclear war. 

Anonymous officials told reporters that Biden “directed his team to ensure that Ukraine is able to use U.S. weapons for counter-fire purposes in the Kharkiv region, so Ukraine can hit back at Russian forces that are hitting them or preparing to hit them." (Kharkiv is Ukraine’s second largest city, located close to Ukraine’s border with Russia.)

Translation—the U.S. is enabling the launch of a major offensive in a war that has already inflicted hundreds of thousands of deaths and casualties on Ukrainian and Russian people, while blaming it on their opponents. 

It gets even worse. At first, U.S. officials said Biden’s policy restricted use of U.S. weapons solely to protect Kharkiv “and surrounding areas” from Russian weaponry “just over the border.” Then the very next day, U.S. secretary of state Antony Blinken implied that the U.S. “may rescind [take back] an unwritten prohibition” against the use of U.S. weapons for attacks deeper within Russian territory. Blinken added that the U.S. would “adapt and adjust” its policy as needed. He opened the door to the possibility of U.S. attacks deep within Russia.

Capitalism-Imperialism’s Cold-Blooded Logic

The war in Ukraine began when Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. For over a decade before that, the U.S. and NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization), a military alliance dominated by the U.S., had been pushing eastward towards Russia. Several countries bordering Russia were admitted into NATO. The U.S. began establishing a more open presence in Ukraine. Then, immediately after the Russian invasion, the U.S. began funneling billions of dollars of arms into Ukraine, as well as intelligence and strategic advice. The war became a “proxy war” to determine which side, the U.S./NATO or Russia, will dominate Ukraine. The Ukrainian military and people have been used by the U.S. and its allies to advance their interests, not the interests of the Ukrainian people. As Bob Avakian wrote about a year after this war began,

Something which cannot be stressed too many times—especially given the lies and distortions in the relentless propaganda offensive by U.S. imperialism and its media—is the reality that the confrontation between the U.S./NATO on the one side, and Russia on the other, is not a conflict “between democracy and autocracy” but between rival imperialists.

In the war’s first few months, Ukraine was able to slow down and stop some initial advances by the Russian army. But a Ukrainian counteroffensive that began a year ago faltered. A grinding, bloody stalemate set in. More recently, Ukraine’s situation has been deteriorating. Russia has been retaking territory in Eastern Ukraine and threatening further advances. 

U.S. policy has been to put maximum pressure on Russia without directly confronting Russian forces or allowing U.S. weapons to be used to attack Russia. Until now, “Genocide Joe” Biden has prevented the deployment of U.S. forces in Ukraine, or the use of U.S. supplied weapons to fire into Russia. Biden said these restrictions were important, because direct U.S.-Russian combat could instigate “World War III”—which is true.

But with the war going badly for Ukraine and its imperialist backers, Biden, joined by NATO leaders like Emmanuel Macron, president of France, is now willing to take that risk. These imperialist monsters are willing to gamble with the lives of millions and even billions of people in order to prevent Russia, their equally imperialist rival that is also heavily armed with nukes, from making strategic advances in this war. This is murderous lunacy. But it is the cold-blooded, “expand or die” logic of capitalism-imperialism.

Clamoring for an Escalation

Other NATO leaders are also clamoring for an escalation of aggression against Russia. The Dutch foreign minister said last week that “If  [Ukraine has] the right to self-defense, there are no borders for the use of weapons. This is a general principle.” She was arguing that NATO shouldn’t worry about crossing the Ukraine/Russia border to attack Russia. Apparently, she didn’t consider that the same “general principle” could apply to Russia striking NATO countries. Reports indicate that France will soon send military trainers to Ukraine, which would make it the first NATO country to “publicly deploy troops on the ground” there. Macron may announce this move next week when Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s president, is in France to mark the 80th anniversary of D-Day, a pivotal event in World War 2. 

For its part, Russian president Vladimir Putin warned that French troops in Ukraine would represent a significant escalation towards a global conflict, and French “advisors” would be legitimate targets for Russian forces. As Revolution reported last week, Russia recently held exercises deploying nuclear weapons near its border with Ukraine. This week, as Biden and other Western leaders threatened direct military confrontations with Russia, Dmitry Medvedev, a leading member of Russia’s security council, said the U.S. would make a “crucial mistake” if it thinks Russia isn’t ready to use those weapons: “This is, alas, neither intimidation nor bluffing.” 

What Is Called for, in the Interest of Humanity

This entire situation is a pile of gasoline-soaked rags just waiting for a match. Only this “pile of rags” contains nuclear and “conventional” weaponry, on an enormous landscape bristling with conflicting land, air and naval forces, crackling with continual electronic warfare and spying. It could ignite into even more cataclysmic (intensely violent) combat at any moment, whether by conscious decisions, by miscommunications, or even by “accident.” The stakes for humanity are very high indeed. The words Bob Avakian wrote at an earlier stage of this war have never rung truer: 

What is called for, and urgently now, is to oppose all imperialist marauders and mass murderers, and all systems and relations of oppression and exploitation, while giving particular emphasis to opposing “our own” imperialist oppressors who commit their monstrous crimes “in our name” and seek to rally us to support them on the basis of a grotesque American chauvinism, which we must firmly reject and fiercely struggle against.

STOP: Wars of Empire, Armies of Occupation, and Crimes Against Humanity!