The war in Ukraine is soon at it’s 9th year and it’s almost been a year since Russia did try to occupies the whole Ukraine and murder the Ukrainian leadership. So lets look what Ukraine could do and if it’s counted as an escalation of the war.
- Attack East banks of Kherson oblast and take control of it
This would still be counted as liberation of Ukrainian territory as the referendum was a shame and was mostly conducted under threat and the annexation ain’t approved by UN and those not an escalation of the war. - Attack on southern Zaporizhzhia oblast and take control of it
As with Kherson, this is also counted as liberation of Ukrainian territory and those not an escalation of the war. - Attack on eastern Luhansk oblast and take controll of it
As with Kherson and Zaporizhzhia oblasts, Luhansk oblast is part of Ukraine, no matter of the creation of the so called Luhansk Peoples Republic, as this is just a shame construction so that Russia would claim it wasn’t involved in the war in Ukraine, this wouldn’t be an escalation of the war. - Attack on eastern Donetsk oblast and take control of it
As with Luhansk, Donetsk is part of Ukraine, no matter if there was the creation of the so called Donetsk Peoples Republic, this also was part of trying to claim that Russia wasn’t part of the invasion of Ukraine, so this wouldn’t be counted as an escalation. - Attack on Crimea and take control of it
The Crimea is still part of Ukraine, no matter of the shame referendum where 15% of Crimean voted for joining Russia, even if it had been 100%, the referendum was illegal and has no legal value, so even going into Crimea wouldn’t be counted as an escalation. - Ukraine to use long distance rockets
This wouldn’t be an escalation, Russia is already using this type of weapons against civilians in Ukraine. - Ukraine to use Western tanks
This wouldn’t be an escalation, tanks are already in use in the war. - Ukraine sink the Black Sea fleet
As long as Ukraine target military ships and ships aiding Russia in it’s attacks on Ukraine wouldn’t be counted as ans escalation, the fleet is already involved. - Attack Russian airbases
Russian air-force is already involved in the war, so attacking the sources from where Russia launch attacks on civilians in Ukraine would be legit targets for Ukraine and those not escalating the war. - Attack ships in Caspian sea
This wouldn’t be an escalation, as the Russian fleet in the Caspian sea are involved in attacks on civilians with their long distance rockets. - Assassinate Putin and his allies
This would be a bit of a grey zone, but as Russia already tried to do this, it wouldn’t be an escalation. - Attack civilians in mass in Russia
This would in a way be an escalation, but as Russia already does that this could be counted as give back, sure it wouldn’t be in agreement with Geneva convention and those we will not see Ukraine to lower itself to commit terrorist acts like Russia. - Occupation of Kursk oblast
If Ukraine would be going into Russia, then there could be a theoretical reason to say that Ukraine would be escalating the war, as long as this is done to paseify attacks on civilians in Ukraine and Ukraine is prepared to return the land to Russia as soon as the war is over, then you could argue that it’s not an escalation. - Ukraine would use nuclear weapons against Russia
This would be an escalation, but Ukraine do not have any nuclear weapons, the west wouldn’t give Ukraine any nuclear weapons and it would take Ukraine closer to 20 years to be able to get to a such state that they could make nuclear weapons themselves. This wouldn’t happen as Ukraine had given up it’s nuclear weapons already, Russia got them all in exchange that Russia would give security guarantees to Ukraine that it wouldn’t be attacked or it’s borders would recognized.