Brian Taylor, professor of political science and director of the Moynihan Institute of Global Affairs, believes that the authorization given by the U.S. and Germany to strikes on Russian soil with the weapons they supply could have an impact on the balance of power on Ukrainian territory.

“It is obvious,” Taylor tells La Presse, “that it will be much easier for the Ukrainians to defend the Kharkiv region, which could free up troops to fight in the Donbass,” the eastern region where Moscow is also gaining ground.

Regarding the threat by Russia to use nuclear weapons against NATO and its allies, Taylor tells Fox News, “I think it's mostly an empty threat. In some sense, both the U.S. and Russia have been deterred by the presence of nuclear weapons.

“President Biden from the very beginning after the full-scale invasion in February 2022 said that the U.S. will not be providing troops to fight in Ukraine because he didn't want the U.S. and Russia to get in a direct war. At the same time, Russia has avoided striking NATO territory, countries that border Ukraine where U.S. and other military equipment is flowing into Ukraine. Russia is not hitting out at those countries,” says Taylor.

“Because I think regardless of the war that we're in, both U.S. leader Biden and the Russian leader Putin understand that an escalation to direct nuclear war between the two countries would be catastropic for both countries. So in that sense, nuclear deterrence is still operating to shape the conflict and arguably has made the United States maybe a bit slow and hesitant at times to come to the full support of Ukraine,” he says.