Will Biden support Ukraine’s attacks on Russia?

This time last year, Volodymyr Zelensky was touring western capitals, calling for weapons and money to launch a decisive summer offensive. Nato eventually provided Leopard and Challenger tanks, Bradley infantry fighting vehicles, M777 howitzers, Himars rocket artillery and Patriot air defences – but too little, too late. The much-vaunted offensive went nowhere, despite a mutiny by the Wagner Group and widespread disarray in the Russian army. Instead, Soledar, Bakhmut and Avdiivka were seized. Today, Russian missile assaults are intensifying, not receding. In March, Russia hit Ukraine with 264 missiles and 515 drones. A relentless bombardment of Kharkiv is making Ukraine’s second city uninhabitable.

In response, Kyiv’s most successful strategy to date has been its ingenious use of Ukrainian-made long-range drones to strike oil refineries, gas liquefaction plants, military airfields, arms factories and petrol storage facilities deep inside Russia. These daily attacks are growing bolder and more sophisticated, from a musical drone that blared German music – Apocalypse Now-style – as it honed in on its target, to a converted pilot-less Cessna plane backed with explosives that struck a Shahed drone factory in Tatarstan, 750 miles from Ukraine.