Almost daily since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last week, the United States and allies in Europe and Asia have been tightening the sanctions vise on Moscow. Yet even devastating blows to the Russian state and its economy did not give President Vladimir Putin pause as he unleashed a brutal overnight assault on Ukraine’s second-largest city.
“The attack on Kharkiv is a war crime,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Tuesday. “This is state terrorism of the Russian Federation.”
Zelenskyy’s words were no doubt carefully chosen. Putin’s grand ambition is to be recognized as a great leader of a great power, and only one sanction in the U.S. arsenal would tarnish Putin’s image and his country’s reputation enough to potentially bring him back from the brink of world conflict. Officially deeming Russia as a terrorist state would even further stain the Kremlin’s reputation and relegate Russia to pariah status.
