The Observer view on Russia: Putin’s retaliation against Ukraine must persuade Biden to relent over arms

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, characterises the Kursk operation as a way of boosting national morale – and of demonstrating to Kyiv’s western allies, especially an increasingly doubtful, distracted US, that the war’s dynamic can be changed – and that stalemate or defeat are by no means inevitable. To better underscore his point, Zelenskiy revealed Ukraine has developed its first ballistic missile and is deploying new, state-of-the-art armed drones.