One Step Closer to WWIII?

In a controversial move, the Biden administration recently approved the use of U.S.-supplied long-range missiles to Ukraine to attack targets within Russia (USA Today, November 19, 2024). Within days, Ukraine used these missiles to attack a Russian weapons storage facility 70 miles from the Ukraine border. Unsurprisingly, Russia responded with a bold revision to its nuclear doctrine, lowering its threshold for using nuclear force against aggressive actions from other nations.

Russia will now “consider using a nuclear weapon if it or its ally Belarus faces aggression from ‘the use of conventional weapons that created a critical threat to their sovereignty and (or) their territorial integrity.’” In addition, “Russia will also consider a conventional attack against it by a state without nuclear weapons but supported by a nuclear power as a ‘joint attack.’”

Later last week, UK-supplied Storm Shadow long-range missiles were apparently fired from Ukraine into Russia (BBC, November 20, 2024). Russia then launched an intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) at Ukraine—a missile that did not carry a nuclear payload but is fully capable of doing so (US News, November 21, 2024).

The war in Ukraine has now passed the 1,000-day mark, and events there are certainly escalating. Will the conflict grow into a war between Russia and the West? While Russia is issuing nuclear threats, we also need to watch how Europe, and Germany in particular, responds to these recent events. To learn more prophetic context behind this ominous situation, read or listen to The Beast of Revelation: Myth, Metaphor, or Soon-Coming Reality?