The Ukraine war, like so many modern wars, is a proxy fight. The major powers dare not face each other directly, because that would destroy both. So everybody o

The Ukraine war, like so many modern wars, is a proxy fight. The major powers dare not face each other directly, because that would destroy both. So everybody operates on the fiction that one side isn't really involved. Nobody knows how far you can push that before the fiction breaks down. So everybody keeps fighting... but not too hard. It's ludicrous, of course. But it works... until it doesn't.