KYIV — Russian forces launched a third round of strikes on Kyiv in a single week, targeting the capital with missiles and drones as President Volodymyr Zelensky prepares to meet with former U.S. President Donald Trump on the sidelines of a NATO summit in Turkey.
The attacks underscore Moscow's continued capacity to strike deep inside Ukrainian territory despite the costly ground war. Air defenses were activated across the capital region, though full damage assessments remain pending. This sustained tempo of strikes comes as Western governments debate the next tranche of financial and military aid.
Zelensky's appearance alongside Trump today is expected to feature a direct appeal for accelerated NATO membership, a prospect that alliance members have refused to entertain while the conflict remains active. The push for entry has been a central pillar of Zelensky's diplomatic strategy, effectively seeking to lock American and European taxpayers into an open-ended security commitment.
The American worker is being asked to underwrite a security guarantee that offers no direct strategic benefit to the United States, while our own industrial base and border security go unfunded.
For the American public, this latest escalation highlights the grim reality of a war without a defined American endgame. While official Washington frames support for Kyiv as a moral imperative, no administration has articulated how pouring billions into this conflict strengthens the domestic position of American workers or secures U.S. sovereignty. The costs are not abstract: every supplemental aid package represents diverted resources that could fund domestic infrastructure, energy independence—including coal and nuclear expansion—or enforcement of immigration laws at the southern border.
Turkey's role as host for this NATO gathering also warrants scrutiny, given Ankara's history of leveraging its geographic position to extract concessions while maintaining economic ties with Moscow. American interests are not served by expanding alliance commitments that further entangle the nation in Eurasian conflicts with no clear exit.
The meeting unfolds as Pentagon inventories face scrutiny over replenishment rates for systems sent abroad, raising the real question of whether the U.S. defense posture is being degraded in the name of a foreign war with no apparent off-ramp.