Volodymyr Zelenskyy is back with his hand out after a Russian ballistic missile barrage killed at least 17 civilians in Kyiv — and once again, the implied bill lands on the American taxpayer.
The attack was devastating. Russia fired 24 ballistic missiles and four hypersonic missiles before dawn on Wednesday, and Ukraine's air force intercepted exactly zero of them, according to the New York Times. They did shoot down 98 drones, but the missiles hit hard and fast — a train depot in the Kyiv suburb of Brovary, a Nova Poshta sorting center, warehouses belonging to civilian businesses. Eight killed at the rail facility alone. Ukraine is running dry on interceptor missiles for its Patriot batteries, the only reliable shield against Russia's most advanced weapons.
Zelenskyy's response was familiar. "Ballistic missile interceptors could have saved the lives of those killed today," he said in a statement. "It is very important that our partners understand that delays in supplying them, or an unwillingness to provide antiballistic systems, lead directly to such horrific casualties and destruction."
Read that carefully. The guilt trip is the strategy. Every civilian death becomes a lever to pry more weapons out of Washington. The New York Times framed the attack as exploiting "Ukraine's depleted air defenses" — a sympathetic rendering that elides the obvious question: how many more interceptors does Washington ship before someone asks what the endgame is?
Emmanuel Macron chimed in from Paris, calling it Moscow's "policy of terror" and vowing that "the European Union and its partners will continue to increase the pressure on Russia, including through new sanctions, while strengthening military support for Ukraine." The Guardian gave Macron's statement generous play. Notice who's doing the promising — and who's expected to pay. France talks a big game. American taxpayers write the checks.
Meanwhile, there's the small matter of a drone carrying an explosive device found near a Ukrainian cargo plane at Leipzig/Halle airport in Germany. German terrorism prosecutors have taken over the investigation. Nato confirmed the drone sighting. Flight operations were briefly suspended. The Guardian covered this; the New York Times didn't mention it at all. Leipzig is a major logistics hub for Ukraine aid — and now someone is flying armed drones near Ukrainian transport planes on European soil. The war is spreading, and the costs are compounding.
None of this changes the basic arithmetic. The United States has sent well over $100 billion to Ukraine. Our own southern border remains a sieve. The Patriot interceptors Zelenskyy wants cost roughly $4 million per round. Every missile fired over Kyiv is a missile not available — not financially, not strategically — for the defense of American territory.
The founders didn't build a republic to be the world's armory. They built it to secure their own borders, their own liberty, their own people. A government that can't or won't defend its own frontier has no business writing blank checks for someone else's war — no matter how sympathetic the cause.
The question isn't whether Kyiv's civilians deserve protection. The question is how long Washington keeps funding a war with no defined American interest, no stated objective, and no exit — while the border at home stays wide open.
