Jet-Powered Pies in the Ukrainian Sky

Zelensky Should Know They're Irrelevant

            As the battlefront news for Ukraine turns ever more grim, with even the New York Times conceding that “Ukrainians in [the] East” are “outnumbered and worn out,” the hype, as usual, is that a magic weapon will save the day.  We have seen many such invocations in the last twelve months: Javelin anti-tank missiles, Stinger anti-aircraft missiles, M777 Howitzers, HIMARS long range precision missile launchers, assorted western tanks. All have been hailed in their time as potentially tipping the balance against Putin’s hordes.  None have succeeded, or, in the case of as yet undelivered tanks, are likely to succeed,  in altering the fundamental military balance in the war. They do, of course, contribute much to the balance sheets of the relevant western arms corporations. Now the embattled Zelensky is calling for “wings for freedom,” jet fighters that will “close the sky,” according to a Zelensky adviser, helping to “destroy practically any target in the air or on the ground.”