Monday, October 10, 2022

Long-range support

Up till now NATO has provided short-range and short-term support to Ukraine. With today's extensive and intended rocket attacks on civilian centers throughout Ukraine, Putin has escalated the war, taking his invasion of Ukraine to a new level of barbarism. And, yes, Putin's action was totally immoral and completely contrary to international law (such as it is) and the Geneva Conventions (signed after World War II). By openly boasting about these attacks on Ukraine, Putin only confesses his guilt to heinous war crimes.

So now the time has come for NATO to step up with much more comprehensive support for Ukraine. Ukraine (and Sweden and Finland) should be admitted immediately into NATO, and longer range military support must be provided to Ukraine so that precision attacks may be made upon key infrastructural support targets deep within Russia. To be clear, I am not endorsing the dropping of rockets on the Kremlin (or sending rockets into the center of Moscow at rush hour, as Putin did today in respect to Kyiv and other major cities in Ukraine). That would be countering war crimes with more war crimes. But Ukraine is fully justified in attacking secondary military targets (supply lines and Russian military installations) used to bolster the Russian aggression. Indeed, Ukraine was already justified in doing so. On top of all this, efforts should be made by NATO to bring Vladimir Putin, the current and long-time President of Russia, to justice.