Originally Posted by
Davef68
He's gambling that his threats are enough to make the West pause, because he thinks they will never use nuclear weapons (or at least not to defend Ukraine) - remember he thinks the West is weak and won't stand up to him directly. So his rational is if he drops a tactical nuke on a Ukrainian city, he's not going to be getting Western SSBMs inbound.
probably not, but since Biden very clearly said "Don"t. Don't. Don't." the Russian troops will in all probability face the full traditional warfare wrath of the west. Black sea fleet - boom. Bases in crimea - kaboom. Russian forces in Ukraine territory - gone. Anything flying over Ukraine - downed. No-fly zone in Ukraine. Full closure of Russia from everything so that even NK will seem like a regular beach holiday resort.