What understandings does Biden have with Putin regarding Ukraine?
Doctor of Juridical Science (SJD) in International Law, Harvard University
Adapted from The Trenchant Observer, September 23, 2023
In an article published September 22 in The Trenchant Observer1 dealing with President Joe Biden’ decision to supply a small number of ATACMS to Ukraine, we concluded as follows:
What is unknown is whether Biden is controlling the supply of long-range missiles and artillery rockets from all sources to keep the number small, in deference to his fears of Putin’s nuclear threats.
Significantly, the “small number” of ATACMS promised to Zelensky are of the kind that carry cluster munitions, not the kind that could carry a warhead that could destroy the Kerch Strait bridge linking the Crimea to Russia.
Which leads us back to a critical and unanswered question:
What understandings has Biden reached with Putin in order to assuage his fears of Putin’s nuclear threats?
And another question:
Are these fears and understandings subject to periodic review and potential revision in the light of developments on the battlefield?
Particularly significant are the back-channel discussions National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan has conducted with Putin’s top national security aides. The White House has not denied the contacts described the articles cited in in the Trenchant Observer dispatch of November 6, 2022,2
Key questions include the following:
1. What understandings exist regarding not furnishing arms that can attack targets in Russia?
2, What understandings exist regarding not furnishing weapons that can attack tbe Kerch Strait bridge?
3. What understandings exist, or have existed, regarding not furnishing arms that can attack targets in the Crimea?
4. What understandings exist, or have existed, regarding not furnishing fughter jets to Ukraine?
Congress should ask, or subpoena if necessary, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and other officials to answer these questions fully.
They have a direct bearing on future U.S. mikitary assistance to Ukraine.
All future military aid to Ukraine should contain language prohibiting any restrictions such as those suggested in the questions above.
“Ukraine War, September 22, 2023: Long-range Storm Shadow missiles make a difference in Ukraine; Biden approves cluster-bomb version of ATACMS,” The Trenchant Observer, September 22, 2023.
“Ukraine War, November 6, 2022 (III): Undisclosed White House back-channel conversations with Putin’s aides,” The Trenchant Observer, November 6, 2022..
See also
1)”Azerbaijan's aggression and alleged genocide in the Armenian enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh,” The Trenchant Observer, September 22, 2023.
2)”Ukraine War, September 21, 2023: Zelensky's visit to Washington--a day of great shame for the Banana Republican Party,” The Trenchant Observer, September 21, 2023.
3)”The American political circus: The "Banana Republic" Republicans want to impeach Joe Biden,” Trenchant Observations, September 12, 2023.
***
Support the Author
Your author needs your support.
You may sign up for a free subscription. To receive all of the content as soon as it is published and to support the newsletter, please upgrade to a Paid or Founding Member subscription. To do so, click on the “Subscribe now” button below.
Alternatively, you may make a contribution to the author’s Go Fund Me appeal by clicking on the last button below. Go Fund Me does not take 10% as Substack does.