India, Oct. 24 -- The renewed flurry of backchannel diplomacy between Washington and Moscow has placed the conflict in Ukraine at its most precarious crossroads since the outbreak of hostilities. Behind closed doors, envoys have begun actively probing the parameters of an armistice, exploring the contours of potential territorial freeze-lines, energy infrastructure ceasefires, and future security architectures. Yet, far from fostering battlefield detente, these preliminary overtures have ignited an acute crisis of confidence within the western coalition. At the epicentre of this diplomatic friction lies what defence analysts now call the interceptor dilemma: The visible throttling and procedural stalling of critical Patriot air-defence mi...