MEXICO, November 20. /TASS/. The US administration’s decision to lift its ban on missile strikes inside Russia cannot change the course of the conflict in Ukraine, Mauricio Estevez, a researcher at the Center for Eurasian Studies at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, told TASS.
"The US is making it clear that as the main sponsor of the war, it intends to continue military activities, using Ukraine as a proxy and seeking to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia," the expert pointed out.
He added that the Ukrainian armed forces' use of US-supplied missiles for strikes inside Russia "will not significantly change the course of the armed conflict." "Achieving this goal requires far stronger military capabilities, particularly in terms of Ukrainian troops on the battlefield. However, we can see that it's getting increasingly hard for Ukraine to draft new soldiers," Estevez said. In his view, recruitment issues prove, among other things, that the Ukrainian people no longer want to continue the war.
"Zelensky is completely subordinate to US interests and is ready to sacrifice his own country’s population to preserve his political position," the expert added.
Russia-US relations
According to Estevez, a recent attack on targets inside Russia involving US-supplied missiles shows that the United States has no plans to search for a solution to the Ukraine crisis at the negotiating table.
"Washington is destroying the communication channels that still exist between the US and Russia. That said, by the time the armed conflict is over, Russia-US relations will have been severely damaged. It’s going to be extremely difficult for the next US government to improve them in the short term," Estevez asserted.
He also pointed out that with Russia’s revised nuclear doctrine in place, Moscow now has all the necessary legal tools "for a tough retaliation against the West’s provocations.".