This is a warning that the West, not Russia, is the one pushing toward a wider war — bad news for anyone hoping for a quick end to the fighting in Ukraine.

• Putin is described as cautious and under domestic pressure to respond to strikes on Russian civilians, not as the aggressor escalating things.
• The real danger, in this telling, is hawks in Washington trying to goad Russia into hitting a NATO country, which would drag the US and other NATO members into direct war with Russia.
• The U.S. president, not Putin, is the one making nuclear threats at the United Nations.
• Ukraine's manpower shortage is called out as a human toll of the war, with claims that men with Down syndrome are being drafted, something that war supporters are accused of ignoring.

Outlook: Expect continued warnings that Western pressure, not Russian aggression, is the bigger risk of the war spreading into a direct NATO-Russia conflict.