Before people start freaking out like unhinged libtards, let's divide things into political and practical.

Politically yes, it is an escalation since the only thing changing is Nato admitting it using ATACMS.

Practically, nothing changes since 200 - 300 ATACMS missiles have already been launched at Crimea, Donbass and Russia. I don't think they have any more capacity with this statement. Right now they have very little capacity after only small proportion is left. Moreover, Russia's AD is top notch and it shoots down almost anything. In this particular case, 5/6 were downed, one got damaged and did only minor damage to the target.

But those actions certainly will help Lockheed's stock price. The stockpiles need to be replenished. But that's the thing; the actual CAPACITY of the american weapon production is pitifully low compared to Russia's. Not only does Russia have massive escalation dominance in the theater of conflict, it can also vastly outproduce the entire west AND it has superior weapons to boot.

What changes from Russian perspective is that Nato, through its own words admittance and actions is providing legitimate basis for them to take out some British, French or US assets. Without the statement, and the subsequent actions, it would not be so obvious.