Moscow has repeatedly accused Washington of directly participating in the war, intending to inflict a "strategic defeat" to Moscow. The White House denies this and says it is simply arming Kiev to defend itself.
The argument serves the Russian government internally to explain the poor performance on the battlefield. And externally it uses it to lobby against new arms supplies to Ukraine. Analysts have doubted it is a genuine attack, speculating that it could be used by Russia to its advantage. But inside Russia, it helped reinforce the Kremlin-backed narrative that its war in Ukraine responds to an existential threat to the Russian state and people.