Some of Ukraine’s top army commanders questioned the cross-border assault into Russia, Ukrainian military officials tell POLITICO.

Propaganda & Proxy Wars

On Friday, September 14, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer met U.S. President Joe Biden at the White House to discuss granting Ukraine permission to use U.S. and British long-range missiles to strike inside Russia, or, at least, to discuss the U.S. granting Britain permission to allow Ukraine to use British long-range missiles. The meeting passed with no decision being announced. That decision seems to be on hold at least until Ukraine presents the U.S. with a list of targets it believes would help achieve victory.

Some officials are gaming out what an off-ramp could look like. Allies insist that no one is pressuring Ukraine to enter talks

The December 1979 invasion of Afghanistan was a watershed event, one that definitively ended “détente” between the global superpowers, the United States and the USSR, and inaugurated a new and more intense phase of tension. The invasion was a clearcut violation of international law and was widely condemned. At the time, it appeared that the Soviet invasion was completely unprovoked, either by the Afghans themselves or by the United States.

Many residents of Kharkiv, where a Russian strike killed five people on August 30, have relatives on the other side of the border, just a few dozen kilometers away. Some are estranged, others are still in touch, but the wounds run deep and families are being torn apart.

The war has done nothing to still the president’s populist impatience with the complexities of governing, and it’s playing against the country’s strengths.

But letting Kyiv strike deep into Russia could lead us right into war

Russian fighters are trying to encircle the defenders

With clock running down ahead of November elections, the administration weighs loosening restrictions on Kyiv’s strikes in Russia