The Washington Post reported some big news this weekend: Classified U.S. intelligence documents leaked last month show that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy proposed to top Ukrainian officials that Ukraine attack Russia within its borders. He also floated the idea of blowing up an oil pipeline to Hungary, a member of NATO.
This is hugely disturbing news. The report underscores the tremendous risks of endlessly arming Zelenskyy with an increasingly powerful array of weapons. If Zelenskyy were to lead an offensive operation in Russia while armed with weapons from NATO, there’s a good chance Russia would interpret it as a U.S.-backed action. That, in turn, could trigger a direct military confrontation between Russia and the U.S. and heighten the chance of a catastrophic nuclear exchange. It’s yet another sign that showing restraint when it comes to assisting Ukraine against Russia’s invasion isn’t weakness, but wisdom.
The Washington Post obtained the intelligence documents, which chronicle intercepted digital communications, from a broader leak of U.S. government secrets on Discord in April. The documents indicate Zelenskyy had been contemplating military strategies that go well beyond what the U.S. has described as a red line for Ukraine: attacks on Russia on its own territory. Proposing a plan isn’t the same as pursuing it, but the intelligence still provides a window into Zelenskyy’s state of mind and highlights the ease with which the war could spiral out of control into a global conflict.
The problem is that Ukraine isn’t acting alone in this war.
According to the Post, in a January meeting Zelensky “suggested Ukraine ‘conduct strikes in Russia’ while moving Ukrainian ground troops into enemy territory to ‘occupy unspecified Russian border cities.’” In another meeting in February with Ukraine’s top military commander, Zelenskyy “expressed concern” that “Ukraine does not have long-range missiles capable of reaching…
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