Two months into the war the temperature of the rhetoric on both sides is warming considerably, exacerbating the conflict between Washington and Moscow, despite the US not being directly involved in the fighting.
Russia has tested both intermediate-range and intercontinental ballistic missiles, the latter with a sufficient range to reach targets in the US – and when the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, warned that these would be “food for thought for those who, in the heat of frenzied aggressive rhetoric, try to threaten our country”, it was clear he was thinking about the US.
For its part, the US has upped the stakes considerably, with US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin declaring that the US and Nato would strive to ensure that Russia emerged from the Ukraine conflict “weakened to the point that it can’t do things like invade Ukraine”.
