It is my personal surmise wrt putin and nukes that he will not do it

[Stinky The Clown]

I can imagine him using a massive MOAB that can flatten a city just like a tac nuke. I can imagine genocide on a massive scale. I can imagine him enslaving captured Ukrainians in modern day concentration camps. I can imagine all manner of crimes against humanity ordered by Putin. Each one incrementally worse than the one it follows.

But I can't imagine nukes. They are such a terrible weapon, several orders of magnitude more terrible, that the entire world, including many of those sympathetic to him, will recoil in horror. Even with "tiny" tac nukes. In particular, the Chinese, who are now his Daddy, will choose not to even get close to defending him if he uses them.

Putin would be totally isolated and perhaps even unseated.

I think even Putin is aware there are red lines.

These are my personal thoughts. Worth what you said to red them.