Ah, so you are using the word “escalation” in the sense that the smaller and weaker party — the party that was aggressed in the first place — is trying to gain strength to fight off the larger and stronger aggressor.
See, it helps when you define your terms so we can understand where you are coming from.
On a micro level, you would be escalating the invasion of your home and the assault on your wife if your next-door neighbor tossed you a crowbar over the fence so you could fight off the invader. I would applaud such escalation, and I bet so would your wife.
Leaders in Moscow, however, tell a different story. For them, Russia is the aggrieved party. They claim the United States has failed to uphold a promise that NATO would not expand into Eastern Europe, a deal made during the 1990 negotiations between the West and the Soviet Union over German unification. In this view, Russia is being forced to forestall NATO’s eastward march as a matter of self-defense.
https://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-shifrinson-russia-us-nato-deal--20160530-snap-story.html
All these issues go back to Catherine the Great, so history matters to the current Russia leader.