Ukraine isn't being run in the interests of its own population. The question is why does US/NATO order them to a strategy of suicidal escalation and the answer is the better informed among the planners who direct Kiev expect Kiev to lose to a meaningful degree (like RF territorial goals attained, with possible substitution of Kharkov parts for right-bank Kherson). Therefore Kiev is tasked with a simple pair of goals (1) do as much damage to Russia as possible, (2) leave as little salvageable left at the end of the war as possible - including slaughter of the male population.
The war will thus end thru simple human exhaustion, and this is a deliberate choice of Ukraine's Western sponsors. Nobody wants to see populations getting displaced by lack of electricity, but their intended fate is to make a show of getting killed for the benefit of the US. They're frankly better off in the safety of an EU country than under the Ukrainian regime.
As for the potential for escalation to "work" in the sense some Ukrainians might wish it to, it isn't actually there. The relevant NATO countries who could plausibly be tricked into fighting and produce meaningful scale (like primarily Poland and Turkey) have apparently caught on and are content to send arms. That isn't going to happen. Russia is also far from alone in this, China - despite their arms-length posture and apparent frugality - is in a very meaningful conflict with the US, and serves as a robust commercial backstop in exchange for Russia doing the same for them in material and geostrategic terms. This will continue as a costly and bloody fight, but little chance it escalates. Where that can and probably will happen is Iran.
Nobody in Washington, nobody in Brussels, nobody in Kiev cares in the slightest whether Ukrainians freeze or starve. The only thing Ukraine produces is warm live bodies.
Ukraine isn't being run in the interests of its own population. The question is why does US/NATO order them to a strategy of suicidal escalation and the answer is the better informed among the planners who direct Kiev expect Kiev to lose to a meaningful degree (like RF territorial goals attained, with possible substitution of Kharkov parts for right-bank Kherson). Therefore Kiev is tasked with a simple pair of goals (1) do as much damage to Russia as possible, (2) leave as little salvageable left at the end of the war as possible - including slaughter of the male population.
The war will thus end thru simple human exhaustion, and this is a deliberate choice of Ukraine's Western sponsors. Nobody wants to see populations getting displaced by lack of electricity, but their intended fate is to make a show of getting killed for the benefit of the US. They're frankly better off in the safety of an EU country than under the Ukrainian regime.
As for the potential for escalation to "work" in the sense some Ukrainians might wish it to, it isn't actually there. The relevant NATO countries who could plausibly be tricked into fighting and produce meaningful scale (like primarily Poland and Turkey) have apparently caught on and are content to send arms. That isn't going to happen. Russia is also far from alone in this, China - despite their arms-length posture and apparent frugality - is in a very meaningful conflict with the US, and serves as a robust commercial backstop in exchange for Russia doing the same for them in material and geostrategic terms. This will continue as a costly and bloody fight, but little chance it escalates. Where that can and probably will happen is Iran.
Nobody in Washington, nobody in Brussels, nobody in Kiev cares in the slightest whether Ukrainians freeze or starve. The only thing Ukraine produces is warm live bodies.
Russia is basically wasting missiles.