Biden Must Let Zelenskiy Bomb Putin to the Negotiating Table
The leaders of the United States and Ukraine must deliver two messages when they meet and then go to the United Nations: First, bombs away. Second, jaw-jaw.
Shoot, reload, talk.
Photographer: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
When it comes to Ukraine, none of the three people in or near presidential power in the United States looks convincing right now. That can change this month — provided Joe Biden, the lame-duck incumbent, makes optimal use of a visit by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and his own speech at the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
Biden has been dithering for months over whether to allow the Ukrainians to defend themselves by shooting Western — meaning British, French or American — missiles deep into Russia. He demurs because he’s afraid, as he has been since the Russian invasion in 2022, of crossing one of the Kremlin’s “red lines” and setting off an uncontrollable escalation that could end in a direct war between Russia and NATO or even the Russian use of nukes. The result, though, is that the Ukrainians can’t properly shield themselves from the relentless Russian barrages terrorizing and destroying their cities; they can shoot some of the arrows but not the archers — that is, the Russian bases and positions doing the firing.