“Bad police, good police” the role of France and America in Ukraine’s attacks on Russian territory

Last week, Ukraine attacked the Nizhnekamsk oil refinery in Russia’s Tatarstan, which supplies 6 percent of Russia’s oil production. In a report, the Russian news agency “Rashatodi” interpreted the reactions of the United States and France to this attack and claimed that these two countries are trying to play the role of “good police and bad police”.

It is stated in this report: “Anthony Blinken”, the US Secretary of State, in response to this attack and while standing next to his French counterpart, said: “Since the first day, our policy towards Ukraine has been to put all our efforts into To help this country to defend itself against Russian attack. At the same time, we have neither supported nor helped Ukraine’s attacks outside its territory (on Russian soil).”

On the other hand, French Foreign Minister Stephane Sejournay said: “Ukraine is acting within the framework of legitimate defense. We consider Russia to be the aggressor. Accordingly, there is no other opinion.” This senior French diplomat considered the Nizhnekamsk refinery as a military target, despite the fact that its oil output, as one of the five largest oil refineries in Russia, is of great importance to the civilian citizens of this country.

In a general statement, the United Nations condemned any attack on civilian infrastructure and refused to comment on whether the refinery was military or civilian. France could have adopted a similar tone, but decided to fully support the attack; An attack that is the latest example of Ukraine’s attacks on facilities and infrastructure inside Russia.

According to Rasha Today, if America really condemns these attacks, why was this French diplomat so eager to support them alongside Blinken? The answer is that maybe the US is not really opposed to Ukraine’s attacks on Russian territory. An anonymous Ukrainian source told the C news channel about this attack. it. Ann said: “We have been coordinating with our allies about the flights for a long time, and the planes follow the flight plan so that we can attack the targets with the accuracy of a few meters.”

Some believe that the term “allies” in the statements of this Ukrainian source refers to the Western Front and does not necessarily include the United States. But in February 2023, this Ukrainian source said in another conversation with “Washington Post” that Ukraine receives the coordinates of the attacks it carries out with American Himars missiles from Washington and its allies. An American official also confirmed these statements. The Washington Post reported at the time: “A senior Ukrainian official said that without precise coordinates communicated by the US military through a base in Europe, Ukraine’s armed forces almost never fire advanced weapons.”

The Washington Post quoted a “senior American official” as saying that America’s role is completely “consultative”; But this is somewhat similar to Blinken’s statement about the recent attack, which said that Washington neither supports nor has a role in these attacks.

Washington keeps saying that it does not want to attack Russian refineries, because doing so would increase the global price of oil. Washington also expressed concern at the time of the explosion in the Nordstream gas transmission pipeline; While today, he does not seem unhappy with Europe’s over-reliance on American liquefied gas.

The recent show of Blinken and Sejourne is reminiscent of the recent statements of French President Emmanuel Macron, who spoke about sending French soldiers to war with Russia. If there is only one country whose positions show America to be relatively pacifist, it is France.

Rashatudi’s report states: “One place of work of these two people is limping. Since when does France stand against America like this?! The same way Sejourne stood up to Blinken and implicitly said that Ukraine has the right to increase the risk of escalation of tensions by attacking Russian territory. Unless Washington is actually totally on board with this. It remains to be seen what America will give to France to play the role of the bad police, or maybe France is so stupid that it plays this role for free!”

Source: ISNA