The United States shut its embassy in Kyiv on Wednesday morning due to what it called the threat of a significant air attack, a day after Ukraine used American missiles to hit a target inside Russia in what Moscow described as an escalation in the war. Ukraine on Tuesday used U.S. ATACMS missiles to attack an arms depot inside Russia, making use of newly granted permission from the outgoing administration of U.S. President Joe Biden on the 1,000th day of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Russia has been signalling to the United States and its allies for weeks that if they give permission to Ukraine to strike deep into Russian territory with Western-supplied missiles then Moscow will consider it a major escalation. Is this a major escalation in the war ?

