Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his generals very clearly understand that they are in very big trouble unless they can draw the U.S. and other NATO powers directly into the conflict.  All of Bakhmut is now under Russian control, and the Ukrainians continue to lose troops at a staggering pace.  They are holding a losing hand, but if Ukrainian leaders can find a way to get the Russians to use tactical nukes or other weapons of mass destruction, that would change everything.  Western powers would feel compelled to respond in kind, and then we really would have a truly apocalyptic conflict on our hands.

In recent days, there has been a tremendous amount of hype about the coming "counter-offensive" that the Ukrainians have supposedly been planning…