They are trying to goad Putin into reacting. It seems to be the Democrat MO— just like the Biden regime is doing things here in the USA to goad conservatives, Republicans, and Trump supporters into reacting (treatment of the Jan 6th hostages in the DC prison, FBI thug attacks on Trump, Trump allies, pro life people, 2nd ammendment people, etc).
"Come on, Vlad - give me my headline! I got a lot of subjects to change over here!" /s