Attacks on Russia Test the Limits of US-Ukraine Alliance
Zelenskiy and Biden have a common goal for ending the war, but different priorities in how they achieve it.
Retaliation for Russia’s destruction of Ukraine involves more than just fair play.
Photographer: Yevhen Titov/AFP
Breaking news from a war zone should be treated with caution: Just weeks ago, mistaken reports that a Russian missile had struck Poland produced momentary hysteria about World War III. Yet if it’s true that Ukraine has now used unmanned aerial vehicles to strike two airbases deep in Russian territory, those attacks tell us something important about how Kyiv is bending the trajectory of a brutal war in its favor, and why that’s producing an undercurrent of tension with Washington.
Since the war began, Ukraine has made Russia bleed in creative ways. Sometimes that’s involved smart uses of key technologies, such as employing US-supplied HIMARS rocket systems to destroy Russian ammunition dumps, logistical hubs and command centers, or using “look over here” deception tactics to enable a missile strike that killed the flagship of Moscow’s Black Sea Fleet. In other cases, Ukraine has apparently employed special-forces attacks , truck bombs and helicopter raids to strike targets in Russian-occupied Crimea, or even within Russia itself.