Ukraine

Escalation was demonstrated. No it’s not escalation all the way, but this is an escalation in response to an escalation.

Perhaps the size of the response escalation, as compared to a declared or assumed promised response escalation, implies some kind of “bluff” was detected. Like maybe Russia said it’d spend 4 escalation points and instead only spent 2 escalation points, but the relative size doesn’t change the fact escalation just occurred. That’s a bad thing.