> The [Western] strategy has been to avoid escalation This is the part that feels like it's failed. Because the West has escalated, but only reactively to batt

> The [Western] strategy has been to avoid escalation This is the part that feels like it's failed. Because the West has escalated, but only reactively to battlefield conditions and without preemptively announcing the steps that will be taken. That ceded the bargaining power that, f.ex., a preemptive "We will give Ukraine surplus F-16s if _____" could have produced.