We all know that the UK is a vassal state of the US. But we didn’t know that Washington DC and EU would be so willing to throw the Brits under the bus so soon!
Earlier last week, the Guardian reported that the UK has allowed Ukraine to use long-range missiles to launch strikes on Russian soil. The decision has been made in private and no official announcement is expected.
The move was reportedly announced when UK foreign secretary David Lammy arrived in Kyiv last Wednesday, along with US secretary of state Antony Blinken. It came despite Russian leader Vladimir Putin issuing a warning that such a move would put the US-led military alliance directly at war with Russia. He claimed the programming of Western missiles would have to be done by NATO military personnel – bringing the military bloc into direct confrontation.
The UK was certainly the first one to bell the cat and it expected its allies to follow the suit!
But guess what happened!
Both the US as well as EU’s biggest economy Germany backed out at the last moment. UK PM Keir Starmer was in US on Friday to persuade President Joe Biden to allow Ukraine to fire long-range missiles at Russia. But the 81-year-old leader remained unmoved. White House said Friday that the United States was not expected to announce a change in its policy regarding the use of long-range missiles. White House national security spokesman John Kirby said, “There is no change to our view on the provision of long range strike capabilities for Ukraine to use inside of Russia.”
Germany was quick to follow. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Friday also rejected Kyiv’s demand. He said, “Germany has made a clear decision about what we will do and what we will not do. This decision will not change.” Berlin has also refused to supply Ukraine with long-range Taurus missiles, over fears of escalating the conflict.
Scholz is also facing increased domestic pressure over his support to Kyiv. In regional elections held earlier this month, parties that are seen as pro-Russia and anti-Ukraine made major gains.
Germany also fears that any further escalation in the conflict may even drag the war to its own borders. So, it clearly isn’t in the mood to further antagonize Russia. This means that while the NATO countries prepped UK up to take on Putin, they left it in the lurch when push came to shove. Perhaps, NATO wanted to test the waters as well as Putin’s patience using UK as a pawn.
And as a result of it, poor UK has now come directly in Putin’s line of fire. Russia on Friday expelled six British diplomats after accusing them of espionage. Moscow’s spy agency FSB said that it had acted on documents showing that part of the Foreign Office was helping coordinate what it called “the escalation of the political and military situation” in Ukraine. UK obviously claimed that the allegations were baseless.
But that’s a major indication that the worst phase for Russia-UK ties is yet to come.
Britain’s former national security adviser Lord Kim Darroch said we should avoid escalating this conflict.
He said, “We really don’t want to escalate this.” Well, Starmer doesn’t agree with him. Darroch also warned that we shouldn’t take Putin’s warnings lightly. He warned, Putin is bluffing until he isn’t.