[crateless]

There is basically no escalation from Russia. The troop deployment on the Ukraine border mirrors a similar deployment in April last year[1].

It is just convenient (Biden's domestic issues/Nordstream 2/other unknown reasons) to claim imminent invasion and the media is incentivised to fuel that narrative since it seems to have captured the attention of the populace at large (perhaps based on the Russophobia that is prevalent in mainstream media).

1. https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/IN/IN11651

[deepsun]

There is a sizeable escalation. You didn't count unprecedented deployment in Belarus as well (Russia's marionette right now), and all the diplomatic ultimatums.

Yes, there were deployments previously, but never this size.

[crateless]

The diplomatic ultimatums as well as the Belarus deployment are in response to the mainstream media's assertions of imminent attack and could also be interpreted as Putin trying to leverage the situation to his advantage to try for concessions of some sort to further his agenda. At this point in time, to be fair, one could argue for invasion but that calculus is so grim for Russia that it seems far-fetched.

Anyway my point is that the initial clamour of "imminent invasion" was unwarranted based on the evidence at the time based on historical troop movement at the border. Therefore there must be another reason underlying the media's outcry which is beyond my ken.