It is not “escalation” for Ukraine to attack the soil of the Russian Empire, Russia made that perfectly reasonable and legal when they launched their explicitly genocidal war of imperial conquest against Ukraine. Kremlin propagandists get to pretend it’s an escalation because it’s new, as Ukraine lacked the wherewithal to dedicate resources to doing so earlier on any sort of scale, but Russian soil was always a valid target in the war they chose to inflict upon Ukraine. It’s very simple for Russia: If they want attacks on Russia to stop they can stop their aggression against Ukraine and withdrawal their forces and the war and attacks on Russia will end.

And the reason you don’t hear more reasonable voices wondering if maybe rewarding an empire for engaging in a war of imperial conquest with appeasement is the right way to go is because the only reasonable position is the anti-empire position.