US Escalated Ukraine Conflict on New Level by Facilitating Terror Strike on Sevastopol
16:50 GMT 24.06.2024 (Updated: 16:53 GMT 24.06.2024)
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A US RQ-4 Global Hawk drone was in the airspace over the Black Sea southeast of Crimea at the time of the Ukrainian Armed Forces' attack on Sevastopol using cluster-armed ATACMS missiles.
Washington's involvement in the Ukrainian missile strike on Sevastopol is undeniable, given that it was conducted with the US-made ATACMS missiles programmed by American specialists, while a US RQ-4 Global Hawk reconnaissance drone was operating near Crimea that day, Russia's Foreign Ministry stated on June 24.
"The US is very complicit in this," Earl Rasmussen, a retired US Army lieutenant colonel and international consultant, told Sputnik, commenting on the Ukrainian missile attack. "It had cluster bombs as munitions as well. Typically, for most countries it is not acceptable."
The expert said it was "highly likely the Global Hawk was providing reconnaissance, targeting information and potentially guidance information for the ATACMS itself."
"ATACMS… essentially needs to coordinate with something. So, typically a lot of times drones' or satellite information are used to help guide the target and guide the missile," Rasmussen explained. "ATACMS is pre-programed to some degree. But to ensure that it gets to its destination, there's definitely communication of some type with an aerial drone system."
US escalated Ukraine conflict to new level by facilitating terror strike on Sevastopol
— Sputnik (@SputnikInt) June 24, 2024
"The US is very complicit in this," Earl Rasmussen, a retired US Army lieutenant colonel and international consultant, told Sputnik, commenting on Ukraine's recent terror attack on Sevastopol,… https://t.co/9sECi7i9fX pic.twitter.com/M1lUVyy334
On Sunday at 12:15 pm local time, Ukraine attacked the Russian city of Sevastopol with five ATACMS missiles equipped with cluster bomblets. Russian air defenses intercepted four missiles, but the explosion of the fifth cluster warhead led to the death of four civilians with 153 more injured, according to local authroirties.
The US government admitted in October 2023 that it had covertly provided Ukraine with a model of ATACMS with a range 165 kilometers. Longer-range ATACMS, capable of striking targets at a distance of up to 300 kilometers, were secretly included in the $300 million aid package and delivered to Ukraine in April.
Both ATACMS variants have cluster warheads, prohibited by the international Convention on Cluster Munitions — which the US declined to sign.
In May, Politico reported that after Ukraine received ATACMS missiles, it also expressed interest in obtaining MQ-9 Reaper spy drones from the US, stressing that it needs new surveillance capabilities to strike Russian targets "deep behind the front lines."
EurasianTimes commentators suggested that "with the acquisition of the 300-kilometer-range variant of ATACMS, the thinking in Ukraine is that pairing it with an established unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV) is the only way to attain some gains in the large artillery and ground systems-centric war."
The Defense Post also reported that US-made ATACMS and MQ-9 Reapers "could work in tandem in Ukraine, with the Reaper collecting target information and the ATACMS ensuring precision strikes."
The US has repeatedly refused to provide its sophisticated drone systems to Ukraine, fearing that they would be shot down and captured by Russian forces. But the Pentagon and its NATO allies have manned electronic intelligence planes and surveillance drones constantly circling over the Black Sea, south of Crimea.
"The Global Hawk… has a long flight duration... It can be up in the air for over 30 hours and has a very long range, both from a flight perspective as well as from a reconnaissance perspective as far as providing detailed information," said Rasmussen. "It can provide very precise information down to less than a meter and basically a third of a meter diameter area."
The military expert emphasized that Ukrainian attacks deep inside Russia cannot affect the balance of power on the battlefield in the zone of special military operation.
He argued that the strike on Sevastopol was aimed at the civilian population to prompt "some type of concern there, to provoke some type of uprising or dissatisfaction with the government."
"Targeting the Russian population, we've got some dream here of some of the neocons that are very influential, of overthrowing the government and dismantling Russia," Rasmussen said. "We've heard comments from both the EU as well as US leadership, senior leaders regarding that. So it's just based on their discussions. Is that rhetoric? Perhaps. But there are ulterior motives in this and it's beyond the battlefield itself."
The expert expects that Washington would play down the recent slaughter of civilians in Sevastopol as 'collateral damage', but the problem remains that the US not only provided Ukraine with long-range weaponry but is "actually facilitating the use of it."
"It definitely looks like the US has kind of escalated this one more level," Rasmussen said. "And the role that it's playing in not just authorizing the use for long range, but actually playing a role in facilitating the execution of these long range targeting efforts into Russia," warning that the attack "drags the US very, very much right into the war."
