Posted on 12/14/2022 5:00:03 PM PST by dennisw
MOSCOW—The Kremlin said that U.S. Patriot missile-defense systems would be a legitimate target if supplied to Ukraine, signaling that Russia doesn’t intend to cease its military offensive even in the face of superior weaponry.
U.S. officials this week said Washington was finalizing plans to provide Ukraine with the highly advanced weaponry that would significantly boost its air-defense capabilities, following months of Russian missile and drone attacks on the country’s power grid, cities and civilian infrastructure.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Wednesday that the coveted missile- defense batteries would absolutely be fair game for a strike, but added that he would rather not comment further until there was official information on the matter, as opposed to media reports, which he described as unreliable.
Mr. Peskov was responding to a question on whether he agreed with comments made last month by Russia’s Security Council deputy chairman, Dmitry Medvedev, that the delivery of such systems to Ukraine would “immediately become a legitimate target for Russia’s armed forces.”
If the Biden administration moves forward with a decision, which could come as early as this week, the Patriots would be the most sophisticated system the U.S. has provided Ukraine since Russia invaded its smaller neighbor in February.
Frustrated by battlefield setbacks, Russia has increasingly reverted to targeting Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure, primarily using Iranian-made drones. On Wednesday, Ukrainian air defenses repelled a wave of Russian strikes in Kyiv, knocking at least 13 drones out of the sky, with explosions reported in the historical center of the city, according to Ukrainian officials.
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
Yeah, good luck with that Vlad.
I think the Russians would LOVE to capture a system intact.
Using Patriots on drones seems a waste.
Vlad the Inhaler.
When your most effective munition is purchased from Iranian towelheads, can you really claim to be a world power?
The global thermonuclear warmongers are going to be so surprised when they are not exempted from the consequences of their global thermonuclear war.
a 3 million dollar missile per shot, to shoot down a 20 thousand dollar drone.
I agree.
Wouldn’t bursts of 50 cal be sufficient?
Sort of a “small caliber” Phalanx system.
Why would this even rate a headline? Of course Ukraine’s military equipment is a ‘legitimate’ target, just as Russian military equipment, even in Russia, is a legitimate target for Ukraine.
This is an obvious statement, military units are by definition targets for an enemy force. But I’m not sure why they bother saying this, they haven’t cared whether a target is legitimate since they starred the war, why bother doing so now?
The easy interpretation here is: If we Russkies take out Ukraine’s new Patriot batteries and kill a few American trainers/advisors. Then don’t blame us and don’t get on our case. Especially since/when our Tsar Bad Vlad The First, is laid up with his cancer doctors in one of his hidey hole bunkers in Sochi, Ural Mountains etc. for Christmas, to dodge this year’s Moscow flu.
Depends on what it’s protecting
Go ahead Vlad! You cant beat little Ukraine with conventional weapons so now you are going to start up a nuclear war with Germany England us and who knows who else. If your conventional systems don’t work why do you think your nuclear ones will. You, yourself know the answer to that. Empty threats are all you have now.
What you are missing are the US troops that will be required to man the systems.
“Why would this even rate a headline?”
Because coming from the MSM and WSJ it sells newspapers.
wy69
What if US forces are operating the Patriot Missiles?
Probably because there will be American’s operating them. The UKE’s do not have time for the lengthy training needed.
This has the potential to echo how we got into WWI -- Kaiser Wilhem told Woodrow Wilson: "If you keep shipping arms to the allies on big ships like the Luisitania, Germany may decide to sink some of those big ships. They would be legitimate targets."
Wilson kept shipping arms, the Luisitania was sunk, and the US media expressed outrage that Germany would dare to attack a ship like that and kill Americans.
Knuckle-dragging troglodytes, barbarian apes with hand grenades. Where is Genghis Khan when you need him?
Putin has almost outdone Stalin ,in defaming Russia, the Russian people and culture. Stalin whom we should have take care of , in Yalta. How about Putin? Where’s the shot? Do the Russian people a huge favor .
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