Escalation Signaling in Ukraine and Its Implications for the Strategic Russia-US Relationship

... the conflict erupted in February 2022. Given these challenges, risks of tensions between the two countries escalating continue to loom large, not least because of existing and evolving concepts of escalation. Both Russia and the U.S. have designated hypersonic missiles and UAVs as pressing military threats. Russia’s ‘Fundamentals of State Policy on Nuclear Deterrence’ (2020) stipulates that adversary missile defence capabilities, hypersonic systems and strike-capable UAVs present threats requiring Russia to maintain its nuclear deterrent. Absent an ...