Russia warned the United States that shipments of weapons sent to Ukraine are legitimate targets for the Russian army.
“Thoughtless shipments of weapons such as mobile anti-aircraft guns and anti-tank missile systems to Ukraine could have serious consequences,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told Russian television, according to the New York Times.
Source: © NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today / #NorwayTodayNews
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I was amazed Russia didn’t declare war on non-NATO Sweden outright, for sending weapons to Ukraine.
A very disturbing question: Where does Russia plan on attacking our U.S. shipments?
Some say Moscow’s problem begins at home.
“The short answer to the question is that they are an epically incompetent army badly led from the very top,” said James Stavridis, a retired U.S. Navy admiral who was the top NATO commander in Europe from 2009 to 2013.
The Russians also face practical obstacles. Robert G. Bell, a longtime NATO official and now a professor at the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs at Georgia Tech University, said the shipments lend themselves to being hidden or disguised in ways that can make them elusive to the Russians — “short of having a network of espionage on the scene” to pinpoint the convoys’ movements.
“It’s not as easy to stop this assistance flow as it might seem,” said Stephen Biddle, a professor of international and public affairs at Columbia University. “Things like ammunition and shoulder-fired missiles can be transported in trucks that look just like any other commercial truck. And the trucks carrying the munitions the Russians want to interdict are just a small part of a much larger flow of goods and commerce moving around in Poland and Ukraine and across the border.
“So the Russians have to find the needle in this very big haystack to destroy the weapons and ammo they’re after and not waste scarce munitions on trucks full of printer paper or baby diapers or who knows what.”