Zelensky bets on new US payoff: long-range strikes into Russia

By diverting forces from Donbas to attack Russia’s Kursk region, Zelensky hopes that Biden will let Ukraine strike deep into Russia with US weapons.

(Photo by TATYANA MAKEYEVA/AFP via Getty Images)

According to president Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s offensive in Russia’s Kursk region – which has forced the Kremlin, for the first time, to fight Ukrainian troops on Russian soil  -- is part of a larger plan to bring peace. “The main point … is forcing Russia to end the war,” Zelensky said this week.

Zelensky did not provide any details of his plan, beyond saying that he will soon present it to President Biden and both presidential candidates. Yet his top priority is no secret. By showing that he can bring the fight across the border, Zelensky hopes that his chief sponsor in Washington will authorize the use of US weapons for long-range strikes far deeper into Russian territory.

Zelensky’s strategy is understandable: when it comes to dealing with Russia, Biden has repeatedly rewarded his Ukrainian counterpart for choosing bellicosity over diplomacy. Biden’s commitment to using Ukraine to weaken Moscow has led him to repeatedly ignore his own self-defined “red lines” for avoiding direct US-Russia confrontation. After seeing Biden send weapons that he had previously ruled out and grant Ukraine the permission to use them on Russian territory, Zelensky is making the logical gambit that humiliating Vladimir Putin in Kursk will convince Biden to let US missiles hit Russian territory far from the newly expanded front line.