It certainly looks like a dramatic development - as globe-trotting master of ceremonies Antony Blinken, strongly hinted that the US, UK, and NATO might soon allow Ukraine to have long-range missiles attacking deep inside Russia.
Jubilation all round - this is what Zelensky has been clamouring for! It's the next exciting development, following all the joy of Ukraine's incursion into the Russian area of Kursk. Best to get over that one quickly, with its huge cost in Ukrainian troops' lives, without any actual military usefulness to Ukraine.
The dramatic need for these missiles is emphasised as Blinken confirmed that Iran was sending ballistic missiles for Russia to use against Ukraine. These are in fact Project 360 close-range missiles. But no matter - it sounds like a good reason for Ukraine to get long- range ones.
Anyway the point is - we all have to be reassured that Ukraine is winning this war. The Western media dwells on each exciting new development like this, rather than the unpalatable facts that Ukraine is falling back in the critical Donbass area, and that it's running out of troops, that Zelensky's survival as president depends on the war continuing a losing fight.
Meanwhile Putin is strongly warning of severe repercussions if the West lets Zelensky attack Russia with long-range missiles. USA and NATO are well aware of the danger of the war expanding into a Russia versus NATO and USA. They don't want this. Russia doesn't want this.
The dilemma is for the USA to demonstrate its "iron-clad" support for Ukraine, without actually really upsetting Putin too much. Hence there's a lot of debate in the West about how to go about sort of sending long-range missiles for Ukraine, but sort of not really using them too much. And how to train and support Ukrainians in the use of them?
To further complicate this issue, it is important for Joe Biden in his last months as President to demonstrate that he's a tough guy - not some sort of weak sop who would - heaven forfend! sink to negotiations with Putin and end the carnage. So - a forceful decision about long-range missiles for Ukraine would look pretty good in that context.
Only you need some intricate diplomatic footwork to spin it all - which is where the silver-tongued skills of manipulators like Antony Blinken come in. It all has to look very hard and dangerous, without actually being so - without too much provocation of Wladimir Putin, who probably understands all this, underneath his bombastic pronouncements.
So - the war drags on, the deaths continue, Ukraine faces a winter with possibly great suffering, as Russia continues not only its troop attack, but also attacks on Ukraine's power supply.
But - look on the bright side - it's great for the USA's weapons companies and their investors. And we, distant media-watchers continue to be awed with the drama, wait for the next development, and wonder if it's a dress rehearsal for the Taiwan-China one to follow this.
Biden made a big strategic error when Russia attacked Ukraine. He decided to hitch helping a beleaguered nation to a different political objective: reviving NATO after four years of attack from Donald Trump.
He could have decided _not_ to frame the support for Ukraine as a NATO thing and instead just encourage contributions from a "coalition of the willing." Such a framing would not have been as provocative toward Moscow and would have produced much of the same result for Ukraine. Supporting Ukraine's war effort hasn't been a whole NATO thing. Only a few of NATO's 35 nations have very substantially contributed (the USA far and away the largest contributor.)
Why does this matter? Because over the several years of war, NATO supporters of Ukraine get more and more entangled in Ukraine's war and risk facing rising domestic political pressure to either "get the job done" (involving logically direct fighting with Russia) or break off support. Not very hard to imagine exactly this happening in the run up to the US election in November.
Biden has understood that nuclear war is a serious risk if the US (and perhaps other NATO countries) start directly fighting Russians. That is why there have been restrictions on which weapons Ukraine gets and some restraints on how they use them. The dangers of taking restraints off are too great for the US and the world. Ukraine certainly needs more artillery shells to hold the line in Donbass. That is where aid should go. Long range rockets, no! That is a strategic error.
I'd prefer to see peace negotiations, Noel. This drama is terrifying, and ending too many lives needlessly.