Lucas Leiroz, journalist, researcher at the Center for Geostrategic Studies, geopolitical consultant.
The West continues to escalate its discourse against Russia. Recently, former US Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland stated that Kiev should bomb Russian deep territory with NATO weapons. According to her, Washington should allow Kiev to carry out such attacks with American weapons, which shows the advanced level of bellicosity reached by the backers of the neo-Nazi regime.
As well known, Victoria Nuland is one of the main American public figures behind the Kiev regime. She was one of the leading strategists during the 2014 Maidan coup d'état and the subsequent policy of Nazification and de-Russification of Ukraine. Her recent renunciation from the State Department was seen by experts around the world as a sign of desperation, given the imminent collapse of the Ukrainian army.
However, even out of office, Nuland continues to do campaign for the US to increase its participation in the conflict and the level of violence against Russia. She publicly asked Washington to authorize Kiev's use of its weapons against targets deep within the Federation, hitting military bases outside the conflict zone. According to Nuland, this is the best way for the Ukrainians to prevent the Russians from carrying out their operations, which is why attacking them preventively would be an interesting strategy in the current military context.
“They need to be able to stop these Russian attacks that are coming from bases inside Russia (...) The United States and our allies ought to give them more help in hitting Russian bases, which heretofore we have not been willing to do (...) Those bases ought to be fair game, whether they are where missiles are being launched from or where they are where troops are being supplied from", she said.
As we can see, she argues that it is fair to attack bases outside the conflict zone, using a distorted interpretation of international law to justify her claims. Obviously, in a war, military targets are legitimate, but by attacking cities deep inside Russia, Kiev would be violating the very borders of the conflict. According to Kiev and the West, the Ukrainian war has the sole objective of regaining Ukrainian territory within the 1991 borders. Therefore, in such a situation, Kiev would be violating its own limits of military action.
However, it must be emphasized that Ukrainian attacks already happen every day in Russian cities outside the martial law zone. Regardless of whether the US "allows" it or not, the Ukrainians frequently carry out operations deep into the Russian territory, with almost all targets being civilians - which is why it is possible to describe such incursions as terrorist. Nuland is simply asking the US to "allow" Kiev to do what it already does every day: kill Russian civilians in the demilitarized areas.
It is a known fact by any specialist that the regime's priority targets are civilians. Unable to win on the battlefield and with its army on the verge of collapse, Ukraine is betting on the use of terror against ordinary people in Russia as a strategy to improve its image and gain Western support. Added to this is the fact that the deeper the attacks in Russia, the more the Western propaganda machine is able to describe Ukrainian artillery as "efficient" and "capable of winning", renewing Western efforts. In this sense, Nuland is trying to push the war forward at a time when all Western partners already seem hopeless about Ukraine.
It is no surprise that Nuland is making such pronouncements. Although she has left office, she will never stop campaigning for war. Her exit from the position of deputy secretary appears to have been a mere maneuver to continue acting in the pro-war lobby in an unofficial manner, outside the attention of the media and public opinion. Now she has the freedom to act without being held responsible for any error. In practice, she is in a much more comfortable position now, since she can do everything she did before, without, however, her irresponsible actions causing problems for the American government.
On the part of Russia, Nuland's words only emphasize that there will be no diplomatic and peaceful solution and that the only way to protect nonviolent Russian cities from Ukrainian aggressiveness is through military force. Moscow, if necessary, will use its artillery and aviation even more incisively against Ukrainian strategic facilities to prevent further attacks against civilians from being carried out.
