Sadly, I think even tactical nukes leads to runaway nuclear war. If Russia nukes Kyiv, NATO/the US respond with a conventional invasion of Russia that leads to larger nuclear escalation as Russia feels threatened. That gets the US to use nukes which destroys the world.
I am admittedly not even close to an expert to what's going on over there, but my understanding is that Ukraine and its people are very close to the heart of Russia. That makes me think that dropping a nuke people who you consider your brothers is out of the question.
>I am admittedly not even close to an expert to what's going on over there...
Don't let that stop you from weighing in with your opinions. It doesn't deter the other eleventy billion people pontificating about this crisis in somewhere they hadn't heard of til a fortnight ago.
Instead of snark, could you provide something constructive? I'm trying to get a better understanding of the relationship, and from my research, Russian leaders and citizens appear to be quite fond of Ukrainian people. Is this not accurate?
You [and the vast majority of other people] could start by at least seeking out the other side of the story and not unquestioningly swallowing this ridiculous American over-simplification of every global crisis into "We're the good guys and they're the bad guys."
The Russians have legitimate fears about the encroachment of NATO and American weaponry right onto their doorstep. You might want to look up a historical event called 'The Cuban Missile Crisis' to see how the US has acted in the past, in a similar situation [see also Nicaragua, Venezuela, etc]
The Russians believe that a democratically elected and pro-Russian government in Ukraine was over-thrown by a US engineered coup [Euro Maidan] and replaced by a fiercely right-wing anti-Russian regime, which is hell-bent on joining NATO and thus having American missiles stationed there [and Ukraine is a lot closer to Russia than Cuba is to America]
The Russians also say their citizens in the two breakaway regions are being genocided. Although that is, at best, an exaggeration used to justify the invasion.
Now, before you accuse me of being a Russian supporter or apologist, I'm not. I'm as outraged by this invasion as anyone else. But to simply pretend that it's all happened because evil mad dictator Putin has suddenly turned into Adolf Hitler reincarnated, while Uncle Sam has been innocently sitting on the sidelines, polishing his halo, is to bring a play school level of critical thought process to bear on the situation.
Honestly, if throwing nukes in Europe, including nuclear fallout over NATO states, is not the red line, then there isn't any. If you allow Putin to throw nukes and answer with more economic sanctions, then the West is a complete joke.
Putin put a red line on Ukraine joining NATO (regardless weather he has the right to) and the west didn't care about his line drawing.
So I guess in international relations, there are no lines? There's nobody to set them
If the point of nukes is "And then everybody dies", then that sounds like a pretty good argument for that we need to disarm all the nukes everywhere, no one should be allowed to have them.
North Korea is a bit different in terms of resources and borders than Russia and still, no one wants to mess with Kim(though i'm pretty sure their rockets will be shot before entering the atmosphere)
Ethnic Russians are in the minority in some places https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Percentage_of_Russia... so some people might try to secede and set up a new nation state. Well, it's been tried before in Chechnya and in the end Russian troops reconquered the territory. But if the Russian military appears sufficiently weak, separatists might try again.
Short answer: Ukraine surrenders. Long answer: Millions dead. People here no idea what is Putin thinking. He is hell bent to get Ukraine. When Russia did that 70 years ago, they don't mind 20mils to reduce Hitler's men to women child or old. Ukraine is far weaker than Nazi Germany. Plus, Putin can sponsor Iran and NK with massive nukes upgrade. He can also arm your average plane hijackers with that too. Zelensky surrenders will save many of us who are non-Ukrainian. The war in Ukraine will also stop. A couple of decades later, Ukraine can regain independence when there is a regime change in Russia. Putin not going to live forever but Ukraine can. I see so many people cheering for Zelensky are just ensuring death sentences for more civilians in Ukraine and also future terrorism-on-steroid victims. You all have gratifying emotional response to cheer for Zelensky, but logically to surrender is better outcome here even though extremely hard to do. Just go read Russian warfare doctrine. Never they do a short war. It is always war on attrition unlike American "mission accomplished" short war doctrine. There is no point talling ahypothetical fantasy not existing. We all know Western countries are reluctant to use nukes while Russia always will (read their doctrine and military training). Russia has bigger land and more obscure than western counterparts. In EVERY multiverse of nukes warfare, Russia always come out ahead (yes pyrrhic victory but still wins).
nukes is the best things that happened and the reason why there is not world wars anymore. You can make an argument that Izrael should give 3 or 4 warheads to Iran.
It would de-escalate the proxy wars.
There aren't world wars any more because the next one will likely be the last. Some decades of relative peace is a pretty poor return from something that will likely end humanity at some point.
Nukes have been around for less than a century, a blink of an eye in historical terms, and have already come close to obliterating the world multiple times. It only takes a single war to undue millennia of progress.
