Untying Ukraine's Military From Unnecessary Restraint

"[The strikes] would not have happened [Russian bombing of Kharkiv] if our defence forces had the ability to destroy Russian military aircraft where they are based."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy

"The West needs to step up its game as Ukraine has done."

"We should worry far more about the consequences of a Russian victory through attrition than we currently worry about the risks of escalation."

Kurt Volker, former U.S. ambassador to NATO

"[The Ukrainian incursion across the Russian border into Kursk has been] a tremendous blow to Putin's legitimacy, Putin's standing [and] a moment of vulnerability."

"Now is the moment people start understanding this is not a just war."

Abbas Gallyamov, former Putin speechwriter

The Biden administration finally authorized use of American weaponry to enable Ukraine to strike across the border into Russia. American authorities describe the Ukrainian military action as "counterfire" measures. Some leaders in Europe who are allies of Ukraine now urge the United States to heed Zelenskyy's pleading and take immediate steps to "untie" Ukraine's wish to demonstrate to the Russian tyranny that Ukraine is fully capable of challenging the Kremlin's territorial grab of the Donbas.

 

 President Zelenskyy envisions the strides his military could make in combating the Russian forces invading his country and bombing his civil infrastructure, the nation's energy grid, its far-flung cities, never hesitating to bomb hospitals, apartment buildings, schools, shopping centres, claiming them to be military bases, possibly hitch-hiking on the Israel Defense Forces' discoveries that all such serve as launching pads and military communications bases for Hamas in Gaza.

For its part, the United States hesitates to allow Ukraine use of U.S.-provided long-range missiles in blocking Russian drone and glide bomb raids in Ukraine, prompted they say, through concerns of Russian escalation, much less Putin's threats of the use of tactical nuclear weapons. The very real prospect of a wider regional conflict is legitimate enough, but how could that be more serious than that other potential of Moscow; realizing success in Ukraine, moving on to repeat its success elsewhere in eastern Europe?

Instead of a war of attrition, efforts in avoiding escalation seems to sit more comfortably with some, albeit not all of the leaders of the 52 countries engaged in supporting Ukraine in its defensive battle against Russia. Directed by a clay mind that sees no problems in violating international humanitarian law. One that ordered Russian troops to set tire fires under one of the Zaporizhzhia power plant cooling towers.

 

A relative mourns at the coffins of Yaroslav Bazylevych's family members during their funeral service in the Garrison Church in Lviv on September 6. Bazylevych's wife, Yevgenia, and their three daughters 0- Darina, 18, Emilia, 7, and Yaryna, 21 0- were killed in a Russian missile attack.

Putin has no use for such international laws, as demonstrated by Moscow's boycott of a meeting of the UN Security Council hosted by Switzerland in commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the Geneva Conventions on international humanitarian laws, characterizing it as "a waste of time". Unsurprising by one who has been amassing a record of lawless infractions of international laws, while sitting as a respected, 'responsible' member of the Security Council.

Kyiv has made it quite clear that its incursion into Kurk's primary goal was disruption of Moscow's artillery attacks and supply lines to the Kharkiv front. Over 250 glide bombs and hundreds of missiles have been launched since summer's entrance, at towns in Ukraine. The intention was to force Russia into deploying troops from the front line in Ukraine, to defend the Kursk region. So far Russian troops sit on 20 percent of Ukrainian geography.

Ukraine has managed to seize over 1,290 square kilometres of Russian territory, with 100 settlements in Kursk in Ukrainian hands, and the evacuation of 132,000 Russians. Putin avers that the small Kursk villages are of "no strategic importance", avoiding the merest whisper of an admission that Ukraine has managed to incur embarrassing damage to Russia's self-portrayal as a peerless conquering, unstoppable force menacing the sovereignty of the Soviet Union's former territorial appendages.

Without equivocation it is true that Ukraine is outnumbered in troops and advanced weaponry, although Russia, like Ukraine, is still making use of Soviet-era weapons, as well. Yet there have been substantial victories for Ukraine in taking the offensive in Russia such as its drone barrage on a Moscow oil refinery, delivering the message to Russians that there are consequences for Russians to Putin's war crimes in Ukraine. 

 

The Ukrainian military's Kursk advantages have certainly lifted Ukrainian morale. Now, it is up to the United States to sustain that momentum, to free Ukraine from two years of long-range missile restrictions so its military can further advance its rescue of its territory in a courageous bid for national self-preservation against a relentless enemy.