[zirror]

Russia can't win a war against NATO, so they will not attack Poland or Germany. Maybe Moldova or something. This fear mongering is ridiciouslus. They can't even win against Ukraine, for crying out loud. Poland, France, UK, Germany(, Turkey?) would together crush them in a couple of months. Add Finland and Sweden and it gets reduced to weeks. Add the US and it'll take a couple of days. (Hyperbole, but still).

They are hopelessly outclassed in all categories but nukes. And UK/France has a couple of them, so Russia can't nuke willy nilly.

[XorNot]

No, but as soon as you start asking questions like "is X country really worth it compared to nuclear war?" then the deterrent has failed.

A loss in Ukraine means every non-NATO state in the region either gets nuclear armed up, or gets annexed.

The expectation that the result of "letting it happen" would also be cheap gas is laughable: if someone's willing to trade away their morals and a country for something you sell them, then you already know it's underpriced.

[oxff]

> The expectation that the result of "letting it happen" ...

EU and USA are letting it happen though: there is no military deployment to Ukraine to protect it, and (my guess is) there will not be.

[ceejayoz]

There's a whole spectrum of actions between "do nothing" and "open hot war between nuclear powers". It's quite clear Western military aid, intelligence, and diplomatic support has been critical to Ukraine in the current conflict.