I'm obviously missing something. From a US perspective, this was engineered primarily to weaken Russia and destroy EU/Russian trade - in particular with regard to energy. By the looks of things, US strategists are purposefully creating a new cold war scenario, corralling their vassals and solidifying their bloc. They're escalating their attempts to retain primacy by hindering/damaging all of their peer/near peer rivals and seem happy to degrade supposed allies in the process. Something like that, anyway.

So what does the UK gain by dangerously escalating the war with Russia? It seems almost desperate. Why else would you push for such risks? What do they stand to win or lose?