An intellectual battle rages: Is the U.S. in a proxy war with Russia?

Three days before the Feb. 24 anniversary of his Ukraine invasion, Vladimir Putin outlined what he had learned during a year of war. With its ever-increasing supply of sophisticated weapons, Putin said, the West was now using Ukraine as a "testing range" for its plans to destroy Russia.

Its goal was "to spark a war in Europe, and to eliminate competitors by using a proxy force," he said in a presidential address. "They plan to finish us once and for all."