@Nazareno Russia and the US could just attack each other, but that would lead to nukes. This is why Russia and the US are using proxies.

the US is using Ukraine as a proxy against Russia.

Russia is using Iran, Hezbollah, the Houthis, etc. as their proxy against the US/Israel.

The whole point is to defeat the enemy military without triggering a nuclear response, and if you DO trigger a nuclear response, they only destroy your proxy instead of you.