Zelensky’s Gauntlet – Did Ukraine Just Draw the USA and NATO Closer to War with Russia by Targeting Russian Strategic Long-Range Bombers Covered by SALT and START Treaties?
Posted originally on CTH on June 2, 2025 | Sundance
First the cliff notes version: There’s an important detail to remember. People are laughing at the long-range Russian bombers being left out in the open, vulnerable to attack. However, the bomber visibility is required as part of several nuclear agreements between the USA and Russia (SALT and START). Our U.S. long range nuclear capable bombers, covered under the same agreements, are also visible.
Ukraine President Zelenskyy is playing with fire by targeting them, which also explains why Zelenskyy never told President Trump in advance.
The U.S and NATO have provided the means. However, #1) did Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy just exploit a vulnerability by targeting Russian long-range nuclear capable bombers? and #2) was the CIA and NATO intelligence community a willfully blind participant knowing they would benefit?
Both the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT) and the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), call for U.S. and Russian long range nuclear capable bombers to remain “visible and observable by national technical means of verification.” That open visibility creates a mutual vulnerability as well as a method of surveillance and verification for both the USA and Russian Federation.
[Article III, Paragraph 7, START Treaty Overview]
Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and by extension his NATO enablers, just exploited that SALT/START vulnerability and used drones to attack Russian bombers covered by USA-Russia treaties. There are reports (and videos) now surfacing from inside Russia showing the Russian Federation moving strategic long-range mobile missile launchers into position for a counterattack against Ukraine.
This situation is obviously very fluid and let us all hope that President Trump and President Putin are in communication about this escalation as created by Zelenskyy and his enablers, even if -and probably especially if- our own intelligence agencies are part of the enabling.
Think about the ramifications of NATO enabled Ukraine targeting major Russian military assets which are vulnerable only because they are part of a previously agreed U.S-Russia negotiation to remain vulnerable. In essence, an argument can be made by Russia that NATO -and by extension us- have targeted nuclear capable missile systems, and those systems were protected by the SALT/START treaties. How would we respond if an adversary launched a strike against our strategic long-range nuclear capable bombers in the USA?
I cannot imagine how President Trump would address a phone call with President Putin when the leader of the Russian Federation confronts him with the reality that it was NATO and USA military support, actual hardware and technical capability, that has provided Ukraine with the ability to target strategic nuclear weapons.
If President Trump did not know of the strike target in advance, which is the element being reported and confirmed by multiple media outlets, this would indeed put Trump in a very difficult position. That reality is likely the motive for Ukraine never to have informed the White House.
Keep in mind the SALT/START treaties are between the USA and Russia only, not necessarily including NATO or European countries. However, the U.S. govt has publicly and openly been sending military hardware and technical resources into Ukraine.
If President Trump or his National Security Council were made aware that Ukraine was going to strike at nuclear capable targets covered by strategic defense agreements, I strongly doubt President Trump, or any member of his administration would have approved or consented to any participation or support. This is just too strong a provocation to enlarge the conflict and draw NATO into it even deeper.
What happens next is unknown.
President Barack Obama negotiated New START, a successor to President Ronald Reagan’s 1994 START I Treaty. START I cut long-range, or strategic, nuclear arsenals by 30-40 percent. New START slashed accountable deployed strategic arms by another three-quarters. In 2021, Presidents Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin extended New START until next February 2026.
Centinel2012 