Readers regard the West's seizing of Russian assets and foreign exchange as acts of war and wonder why Putin does not declare them as such.  The sanctions are weapons being used in an effort to destroy Russia just as if they were military weapons. The countries imposing sanctions on Russia are just as involved in the conflict as if they had troops fighting in Ukraine.

Putin recognizes the sanctions as such.  He declared the sanctions to be "a total undisguised aggression" and "a war waged by economic, political, and informational means."  But Russia has not responded as she would if Western troops were involved.  The reason is that Putin regards war, especially nuclear war, as more damaging than sanctions.  Instead of unleashing his forces, he is preparing Russia to survive the sanctions while he puts in place systems that make Russia immune to sanctions, something that should have been done long ago.

It wasn't done, because of the extraordinary influence on Putin of three Russian traitors–Anatoly Chubais, Alexei Kudrin, and central bank chief Elvira Nabiullina.  These are people who represent the West, but have Putin's ear.  Bloomberg, an unreliable news source, reported that "Russia's highly regarded central bank Governor Elvira Nabiullina sought to resign after Vladimir Putin ordered an invasion of Ukraine," but was not permitted to leave her post.  Instead Putin nominated her for another term.  https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-03-23/russia-central-banker-wanted-out-over-ukraine-but-putin-said-no 

Whether or not Bloomberg's reporting is fake news, notice that the anti-Putin Bloomberg News describes Nabiullina as "highly regarded" (Bloomberg means in the West) and goes on to report that "Nabiullina, is favored by investors and hailed by publications including Euromoney and The Banker as one of the world's best monetary policymakers."  The reason she is favored by Western investors and financial publications is that she runs the Russian central bank in ways that enrich the West and impoverish Russia.  You can bet your life that if she were helping Russia, she would not be  "highly regarded as one of the world's best monetary policymakers."  Clearly Bloomberg is doing all it can to keep her on the job serving Western financial interests.