Biden and other officials in his Administration, meanwhile, are looking at the calendar and trying to figure out what they can still offer Ukraine. Besides the policy shift on long-range strikes, the Administration will also now ship anti-personnel mines to Ukraine. “It really matters to him how he leaves Ukraine,” the Biden Administration official said of the President. “It’s a fundamental part of his legacy.” Kofman told me, “This looks to be the time when the Biden Administration will take a host of actions it had previously resisted so as to try and avoid handing over the war in a trajectory of terminal decline.” Kofman compared the flurry of activity to a “person pushing all the buttons on the elevator and then getting out on their floor.”
They’ll do this for Ukraine, but wouldn’t think of it for, say, impeding the mass deportation Trump ran on.