Biden announced last week that the United States would send 31 M1A1 Abrams tanks, eight M88 recovery vehicles, and more than 500 armored vehicles to Ukraine to help them fend off the ongoing Russian invasion. Russia interpreted the move as “direct involvement in the conflict.”
“There are constant statements from European capitals and Washington that the sending of various weapons systems to Ukraine, including tanks, in no way signifies the involvement of these countries or the alliance in hostilities in Ukraine,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters Thursday. “We categorically disagree with this, and in Moscow, everything that the alliance and the capitals I mentioned are doing is seen as direct involvement in the conflict. We see that this is growing,”
It shouldn’t surprise anyone that Russia responded this way. The Biden administration has known for a year now that providing tanks to Ukraine would be seen as an escalation and direct involvement by the Kremlin. Last year, Joe Biden told a gathering of Democrats that sending tanks to Ukraine was so dangerous that it could start World War III.
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It could have easily been dismissed as hyperbole, but seeing as the Biden administration has never blinked when it comes to sending billions of taxpayer dollars to Ukraine, he was obviously being advised that sending such equipment would cross a line of direct involvement. In fact, both Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Joint Chiefs Chair Gen. Mark Milley had also long opposed sending tanks to Ukraine, even as recently as a week before the policy was reversed.
Related: U.S. General Warns We’ll Be at War With China in Two Years
So, not only is Russia treating the commitment of tanks and offensive equipment to Ukraine as the United States’s direct involvement in the ongoing conflict with Russia, but Air Force General Mike Minihan is now predicting war with China is inevitable within a couple of years, and is advising officers in his command to prepare for it.
“I hope I am wrong,” Minihan wrote. “My gut tells me we will fight in 2025. Xi secured his third term and set his war council in October 2022. Taiwan’s presidential elections are in 2024 and will offer Xi a reason. United States’ presidential elections are in 2024 and will offer Xi a distracted America. Xi’s team, reason, and opportunity are all aligned for 2025.”
This memo comes just as Biden reversed his policy not to arm Ukraine with tanks, and it just so happens that China and Russia have a “strategic partnership,” and both nations see a brewing opportunity to engage the United States in military conflict. Whether or not China invades Taiwan is still academic at this point, but the Washington Post reports that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is doubtful that this will happen. He said that “the United States had observed some ‘very provocative behavior’ from Chinese forces in an attempt to push international norms.”
Is Biden sending us down the path of a multi-front international military conflict, potentially World War III?
