Russia Engaging In ‘Asymmetric’ Warfare Against Europe, Likely Behind Bombs Sent In ‘Courier Packages’: Reports CNN

CNN anchor Brianna Keilar spoke to CNN chief international security correspondent Nick Paton Walsh on Monday about the escalating fighting between Russia and Ukraine, which observers worry could spark a wider conflict in Europe.

“The authorization coming as Russia unleashed a second missile attack here in two days on the Ukrainian city of Odessa. CNN chief international security correspondent Nick Paton Walsh is in London with the latest on this. Nick, talk to us a little bit about this decision, because it has been a long time coming,” Keilar began.

“It certainly has and the period of months in which President Joe Biden has essentially said this decision will be too escalatory for him to make has added to the significance of what we heard on Sunday, allowing Ukraine to use these attack and long-range missiles to go after targets inside of Russia,” Paton Walsh replied, adding:

Now, I should point out at this stage, it doesn’t seem like there’s really going to be enough of these missiles available to Ukraine to magically tip the balance in a war where Russia on the front line is gaining. The upper hand has been consistently and steadily advancing in the east. But it certainly suggests that President Biden, in his closing months, is not afraid of escalation and potentially wants to see the war in Ukraine involve the United States in a more intense, greater fashion in these closing months of his administration.

Perhaps to complicate or change the dynamics that President-elect Donald Trump inherits, if potentially he pursues negotiations like him and his team around him have suggested, might indeed be the point.

I should point out that while we haven’t heard directly from Russian President Vladimir Putin, he has in the past suggested that if these missiles were in fact used, that would constitute NATO, the United States and Europe essentially becoming parties to the war. We’ve not heard from him today, but we have heard from his foreign ministry who’ve essentially repeated that idea. So interesting to see how the Kremlin respond to this, Brianna.

“And what can you tell us about these two undersea cables in the Baltic Sea, Nick, that have been cut here in the last 48 hours?” Keilar followed up.

“Yeah. Look, there’s two here, one between Lithuania and Sweden. Lithuanian officials have been clear that they believe has indeed been cut. And a second one that is between Germany and Finland, where a mystery disruption appears to have interrupted some of the traffic there,” Paton Walsh replied, adding:

Now, look, we don’t have any evidence at this point to suggest that these events are indeed linked. But bear in mind that while we have heard Russia vocally saying that it will respond to what it considers escalation by the West, it doesn’t really at this point have the military strength struggling in nearly a thousand days of war inside of Ukraine to take on a neighbor that it considered to be weaker than itself to confront NATO’s the largest military alliance in history directly.

And so instead, we’ve seen an increase in what intelligence officials have been calling the asymmetric response of Russia. There’ve been suggestions that Russian intelligence may have been behind some courier packages that have detonated, almost detonated, around Europe. And it may indeed be that in the future, we see some suggestions that these Internet cables on the bottom of the sea may have been tampered with by some body. But interesting the timing of this. And I’m sure investigators will be looking fast and hard to see exactly how this happened.

Watch the clip above via CNN.