Polish fighters fly into Ukraine. Russians shoot one down. Of course, the Russians would rush to capture and Poles rush in to extract. There's a shootout. NATO's at war with Russia. Those are the consequences of this reckless rhetoric, all of which either ends in a NATO war with Russia or a complete waste of expensive material, unnecessarily higher military and civilian casualties and depravation of a potential ally in Chinese encirclement. So ideas like deploying our most advanced and powerful weapons, much less actual sailors,
sinking the Russian Black Sea fleet.
That would be far beyond a proxy war, that would be directly engaging the Russians in what they consider to be a part of Russia. Even if it's just NATO or American ultra-high tech being used means a war with Russia because US/UK personnel would have to launch those missiles. That would trigger every nationalistic and paranoid reaction in Russia, yet
this and other anti-Russian agitation is driving the Russian's further together as they rally around their flag.
The Russians are probably the most paranoid and nationalistic people on Earth, so probably unsound policy to encourage those characteristics if trying to deescalate the current war. However, maintaining the anti-Russian agitation will just push them to greater paranoia and nationalism. The paranoia stems from being so frequently invaded from the West and is perhaps more prudence than paranoia. Don't believe just the US propaganda, Putin has become more popular or at least Russians are supportive of the war.
Look at Russian reactions in previous wars, (e.g. the long term public remained supportive of Afghanistan for a decade) and considering the Russian attitude toward Ukraine (firmly part of Russia) you should definitely not assume a majority of Russians are unsupportive of this war. The collapse of the USSR left Russia a big black historical eye, did it not? For the first time since before Columbus Russia was not an expansive imperial power, considered among the few Great Powers. You don't think there is a large Russian population that feels easily dismissed by their foreign competitors and looking for a chance to get back in the Big Leagues? Like all those people that remember when a meeting between their leaders and POTUS was the biggest news story in the world. They lost a lot of shine in Afghanistan but that was now a long time ago and the 60s-80s holds some nostalgic value in Russia. The Russian military got a big black eye in Afghanistan and they too are looking for a big win.
Remember, hundreds of years of Russian history before the Euro migration to the Western Hemisphere began. They do not think like Americans.
That's just US happy talk. Wars are always against the enemy people, at least as long as they support the "regime" with which we are at war. Wars don't actually end until one population finds the cost of supporting their government is greater than overthrowing it or, in small wars, when one side realizes it's time to cut a deal, having achieved enough objectives to consider it a win. We have forgotten what war is like because all our wars have been over there. Since WW2 we have seen smallish political wars with increasingly fewer casualties but also without victory-which really kind of makes the wars just murder fought about nothing. While we have not fought a big war in most of our lifetimes this Ukrainian thing is a very big war for Russia. I suspect their public is prepared for much higher casualties to reabsorb Ukraine back into greater Russia, where it was for four centuries, precisely how tens of millions of Russians aged about 40 and over remember Ukraine's relationship to the Mother Land and their Imperial glories over centuries.
The one thing that's been good news for us will ultimately undo Ukraine. It appears that Russian tactical and theater specific strategy hasn't really changed since WW2. The good news, if we get drawn into this centuries old conflict we will probably win, albeit like the UK after WW2, utterly exhausted. The bad news is the Russians will just bring up more men, more tanks, more big guns, missiles and rockets for their next offensive which will probably come south of Kyiv. Their infantry attacks will just be preceded by bigger and bigger barrages. The Ukrainians will simply run out of combat soldiers, and the ability to organize the ones that remain.
We need to remember what war fighting is all about and whose interests are at stake in fighting a war.