In yet another widening of policy which marks escalation in Ukraine, the Biden administration is preparing to lift a de facto ban on allowing American military contractors to deploy inside Ukraine.

Four US officials described to CNN that the fundamental purpose would be to help the war-ravaged country's country's military maintain and repair US-provided weapons systems, much of which has already been damaged.

"The policy is still being worked on by administration officials and has not received final sign-off yet from President Joe Biden, officials said," CNN reports.

One administration official said, "We have not made any decisions and any discussion of this is premature." However, the official sought to underscore that "The president is absolutely firm that he will not be sending US troops to Ukraine."

Throughout the course of the war there have been plenty of foreign volunteers, and very likely there are US contractors on the ground serving with Ukraine's foreign legion or assisting with the military. 

But the new plan which is apparently close to approval would see those with Department of Defense (DoD) contracts and mandates servicing and repairing some of the weaponry provided by Washington. It would certainly open the flood gates as well, in a Blackwater meets Iraq kind of way.

US-provided equipment must currently be removed completely from the battlefield and from the country to get significant servicing, for example in neighboring Poland or Romania. The ordeal is said to be too time consuming and thus not very effective.

The CNN report describes that currently "US troops are also available to help the Ukrainians with more routine maintenance and logistics, but only from afar via video chat or secure phone--an arrangement that has come with inherent limitations, since US troops and contractors are not able to work directly on the systems."

This is quite obviously another example of how the situation is sliding toward more 'boots on the ground' in Ukraine despite the constant refrain and insistence from Washington and NATO that this won't be the case.

Q: The Biden admin is reportedly considering allowing US military contractors in Ukraine. What's the difference between this and having boots on the ground? PENTAGON: The president and the secretary have been clear that we're not going to send US troops to fight in Ukraine, and… pic.twitter.com/KRXTZbrtSo

-- Ken Klippenstein (@kenklippenstein) June 26, 2024

All that has to happen to trigger a potential nuclear-armed confrontation and WW3 scenario is for Russia to hit a Ukrainian position which happens to have American contractors working on weapons systems at the time.

And it would also eventually be a very short step for US contractors to go from servicing the weapons to actually firing them, for example with the more complicated HIMARS or ATACMS weapons.