"Putin Escalates Rhetoric Against West Amid Rising Tensions and Casualties"
The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) suggests that Russian President Vladimir Putin is portraying the conflict in Ukraine as a broader war against the West to rationalize the significant losses of Russian troops. Despite substantial casualties, with estimates of 315,000 since the war's onset, Russia has made minimal territorial advances. Putin's recent rhetoric and actions, including a meeting with wounded soldiers, seem to be aimed at providing ideological justification for continued combat and to frame the West, not Ukraine, as the primary adversary. This narrative could be part of a strategy to maintain Russian military mobilization and to potentially pressure the West into negotiations that could undermine Ukraine's position.