As President Donald Trump tightens bonds with Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin is doubling down on his bloody war, ordering a huge influx of men to sign up for service.
The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that Trump has signed off on sharing US intelligence to help Kyiv attack oil refineries, pipelines and other key targets in Russia — and is reportedly considering giving Ukraine the Tomahawk and Barracuda cruise missiles needed to strike deep inside the invader’s territory.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian officials are in Washington to seal a deal that President Volodymyr Zelensky says will involve the United States purchasing drones directly from Kyiv.
All great move: Ukraine’s battle-tested tech can help us shore up our own drone capabilities, while enabling Kyiv to hit Russia where it hurts, and can force an end to this war.
Plus, the two deals bolster good relations, less than a week after Trump’s declaration that Ukraine can beat the “paper tiger” in Moscow.
That clearly got Putin’s hackles up: On Monday, the dictator signed a decree ordering 135,000 more men conscripted into the army, the country’s largest fall draft in nine years.
It’s a pure saber-rattling, meant to make Kyiv and Washington think the Kremlin is in it for the long haul.
But are the Russian people? How long will they accept being sacrificed — literally and economically — for Putin’s bloody ambitions?
Gauging civilians’ true feelings in a country where journalists are arrested for criticizing the war is a fraught task, to say the least.
But polling shows support for the war has tanked: Two-thirds of Russians want peace; only 27% say they want the conflict to continue, the lowest ever.
As much as Putin would like to pretend public opposition doesn’t exist, much less matter, it was a major reason the Soviets pulled out of their quagmire in Afghanistan in 1989 — and Vlad’s war has already cost more Russian lives than that decade-long “intervention.”
Even a tyrant can’t ignore the will of his people forever.
By closing the daylight between Washington and Kyiv — and isolating Putin in the process —Trump can speed up that day of reckoning.
