The Biden administration's sudden lame-duck approval of Ukraine using U.S. longer-range missiles to attack deep inside Russia leaves many scratching their heads in disbelief, some even speculating that the outgoing president seems intent on starting World War III – all to disrupt the coming administration of Donald Trump.

With only two months remaining in office, Biden has authorized Ukraine to use Lockheed Martin's Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) rockets, which have a range of up to 190 miles and are designed to strike deep into enemy territory.

And indeed, for the first time in the 33-months-long war, Ukraine is firing the U.S.-supplied missiles deep into Russia.

In response, Russia's president, Vladimir Putin, has signed a new nuclear doctrine stipulating that any attack on Russia, if that attack is supported by a nation with nuclear weapons, could serve as grounds for a nuclear response from Russia.

In other words, the use of nuclear weapons in the Russia-Ukraine war has suddenly become potentially much more imminent.

Putin's new nuclear policy came one day after Biden authorized Ukraine to attack Russia with American-made longer-range missiles.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov argues that Ukraine's use of the American missiles will "continue adding fuel to the fire and provoking further escalation of tensions around this conflict." And, concedes the Associated Press, "Biden's shift in policy adds an uncertain new factor to the conflict on the eve of the 1,000-day milestone since Russia began its full-scale invasion in 2022."

What is really going on? Some U.S. military members are outspoken regarding what they see as the real reasons for Biden's sudden escalation. One of them, Army Lt. Col. Darin Gaub, a former UH-60 Blackhawk pilot and co-founder of Restore Liberty, told WorldNetDaily: "This entirely has to do with trying to tie Trump's hands to a war, dampening his ability to achieve the agenda that the American people want him to achieve." According to Gaub, "This has been in the [Left's] plan for quite a while, in anticipation of the landslide victory that occurred earlier this month."