Ukraine's mass drone strikes on Moscow escalate without U.S. guardrails

The Biden administration's tacit toleration of Ukraine's domestic drone strikes deep inside Russia—now reaching the scale of hundreds in a single night on Moscow itself—creates a dangerous gray zone. While U.S. law (22 U.S.C. § 2751 et seq., Foreign Assistance Act) prohibits using American-supplied weapons for strikes on Russian soil, Kyiv's use of its own drones bypasses that restriction. The result is a de facto U.S. policy of enabling escalation without accountability, oversight, or a clear endgame. Mayor Sobyanin reported 430 drones in one night on July 19-20. This is not a one-off; it is a sustained campaign. Without explicit conditions on what targets are permissible, intelligence-sharing limits, or a diplomatic framework, the U.S. is effectively outsourcing strategic risks to Kyiv — risks that could draw NATO into a wider war if a drone malfunctions or hits a target Moscow deems existential.