Joel Mathis
The best defense is a good offense. At least, that's what Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy seems to think. His country's shocking incursion into the Kursk region of Russia is part of a "victory plan" designed to force Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table after two years of war, said the BBC. "It may sound too ambitious for some," Zelenskyy told a news conference this week, "but it is an important plan for us."
"Ukraine has scrambled assumptions with its push into Kursk," Max Boot said at The Washington Post. Putin had long vowed that any threat to Russia's territorial integrity would be crossing a "red line" that could end with the use of nuclear weapons — and possibly the outbreak of World War III. That, in turn, prompted U.S. President Joe Biden to put limits on U.S. aid to Ukraine. Now? Putin is acting as though it's "it's business as usual for the Kremlin" even though Ukraine has captured 500 square miles of Russian land. Maybe those red lines are "not as menacing as President Joe Biden seems to imagine."
'Far short of nuclear escalation'
"Did Ukraine just call Putin's nuclear bluff?" Joshua Keating said at Vox. Kyiv's leaders "likely hoped to send a message" that American and European allies have been "overly cautious" about crossing Putin's red lines. Moscow has launched missile and drone barrages at Ukraine in response. That's "far short of the nuclear escalation" that Putin had threatened. Zelenskyy's argument now is that Western leaders can become "much more aggressive" in helping Ukraine win the war.
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