Russia - threadbanned users in OP

Is there any evidence that India and China would decisively turn against Putin if he used a tactical nuke? I doubt they would be happy about it privately but they’ve stuck with him after he launched a brutal war of occupation on the most pathetic pretext ever - I wouldn’t be confident that they would break with him unless he went completely insane and threatened to wipe out London or Paris or something similar

Where would Russia explode a nuke for best effect

I think western Ukraine or odessa

Civilians are viable targets in putler's sick mind already a mass murderer

The 96hours of US/NATO involvement sees Russia anialated

There should post nuke war gaming preparations displays

Nuke threat climb down will be a disaster for the west

I very much doubt Trump actually meant anything by that statement. I think it was just his usual hyperbole. It’s unlikely he knew the difference between the various options. This was a man who inquired about the use of nuclear weapons to stop hurricanes.

Despite the hundreds of terminal medical diagnoses he's received on this thread since last winter, Putin turns 70 today. Obviously his body is a bit more robust than his country's military.

I, for one, wish him an awful birthday and a thoroughly miserable new decade marked by defeat, isolation, and humiliation.

I would like to join you in wishing Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin a very, very crappy birthday.

It'd be kind of funny if he did though. "Putin, Russia, the BOMB? Hahaha I bet none of their nuclear weapons even work." Just to see what would happen

At least one of those is true....

I see the orc in the jacks video was pulled from twitter,

It's not a big joke, but at the same time it's abject fear that Putin is looking to instill, and I do not believe he should be given that satisfaction. It's a very cagey game of brinkmanship going on, here. Putin will not want to be seen as a bluffer as it would make similar threats hold less weight in the future. Ukraine and NATO cannot give any indication that it's nuclear talk which gets the sides to the negotiating table and offering better terms than Putin would otherwise have gotten. This is a highly dangerous precedent to set when dealing with a despot like Putin.

Since it's Russia who introduced the nuclear aspect to their rhetoric, it falls upon Russia to withdraw it. Maybe the U.S. could communicate that via back channels.

I take your point, both sides are treading a very fine line and trying to second guess the other side's true intentions. Biden can't say "no chance he'll go nuclear!" and also can't say "we better surrender Ukraine in case he goes nuclear", the first approach is too risky, the second would set a terrible precedent. The message he seems to be trying to get across to Putin is basically "dude, it just ain't worth it, not for you, not for anyone"and hoping the scumbag has a little bit of sense left in him to listen to reason

@Kermit.de.frog

Realistically speaking, little to nothing is worth nuclear war, especially an all-out exchange, but this assumes rational actors on all sides who will recognise that. What Putin is doing is fairly unprecedented to be A) someone with enough nukes to, if not end the world, then seriously disrupt human civilisation, B) threatening to use at least one of these in an offensive capacity, risking a major escalation.

If Putin really is that crazy, there's technically nothing to stop him from saying that he wants all former Warsaw Pact countries in NATO to leave NATO by the end of the year, and if he doesn't get that, he'll nuke everyone and everything, and there'll be plenty of voices saying, "Fúcking give him it!"

The problem is that nuclear doctrine isn't really a tested thing since WW2. If push comes to shove, where are people collectively willing to draw a line, if there is a line?

I was born n in the deep south.......Kerry.😂😂😂

I was always a History/ Military buff. I had know that DT was a police tactical shooting technique most of the rest came up when I was confirming it.

Re advances likely consolidating, resupplying and planning. Won't they be monitoring and shelling Russian supply routes to Kherson in particular. Likely also working on spreading dissent in Russian forces there with a view to surrenders.