Putin’s nuclear shadow war with Ukraine is a magic trick

The key to all magic tricks is distraction, which is the best way to understand Russian President Vladimir Putin’s latest round of nuclear saber-rattling, including — if an as-yet unconfirmed report from Ukraine’s air force proves correct — Thursday’s first use of an intercontinental ballistic missile to hit a target in Ukraine.

ICBMs are primarily designed to carry nuclear warheads to targets thousands of kilometers away. This one would have worn conventional explosives for about 1,000 kilometers (620 miles), from Astrakhan, at the northern tip of the Caspian Sea, to the Ukrainian city of Dnipro.