How pre- is it, if Russia’s fucking about in NATO airspace? It seems pretty emptive. Responding to probing escalation is not itself escalation.

David Graeber described this as the triangular dynamic of bullying: “a moral drama in which the manner of the victim’s reaction to an act of aggression can be used as retrospective justification for the original act of aggression itself.” As if Poland responding in kind to Russian incursions would somehow be Poland’s fault.

Or anything Ukraine does against Russia’s invasion would be out-of-pocket and unexpected.

Possibly just to deny people standing, should they sue. ‘We haven’t dehumanized you yet!’