The whole Ukraine war has been one large provocation right form the February coup d'etat. The aim was to pull Russia into a war and then blame Russia for an "invasion" and perform a "retaliatory" attack. This is something that Russia constantly denies the warmongers, so that Washington needs to push their puppets to more and more reckless and stupid acts in the hope of provoking a response.
That is exactly what is happening. The reasons are multiple.
1. The increasing trade volumes between Russia and the EU, which is harming some of the US's best allies.
2. Lack of demand for the Qatari LNG, mostly owned by the American corporations.
3. The formation of the Eurasian Union