Russian tanks roll across Red Square during the Victory Day military parade in Moscow, Russia, on May 9, 2025. (Stringer / AFP)Russia's war on Ukraine has yet to end because Russia keeps waging it. Moscow's war of choice, an attempt to recolonize Ukraine, is surreptitiously repainted as a struggle between "the West" and Russia. In an eerie echo of that logic, Putin, and now Melnichenko, blame Russia's war of choice on NATO. In practice, it manifests as warmongering when such calls leave the aggressor rewarded, armed, and undeterred from striking again.