[throwoutway]

> Credible promise of responding with those small nukes directly against Russian regime is what stopped Putin's threat of using nuclear weapons in Ukraine.

Link to credible reports where the US said they would respond with nukes? AFAIK, this never happened and I paid close attention

[Gene_Parmesan]

I have no inside knowledge whatsoever but we can all rest assured that each side is in a near constant back and forth of implicit unstated "communication" about capabilities and doctrine.

Merely publishing a paper on a certain subtopic in the fusion space can easily be interpreted as an implied threat or threat response.

Of course the US does have a stated doctrine of using nukes only in response to nukes used against it or its allies. It is enormously doubtful that the US would trigger an end-of-days scenario in response to Russia using tactical/low-yield nukes against a non-US-ally like Ukraine, but the uncertainty is for sure purposefully cultivated.

[CyanBird]

Correct, this has not happened and will *not* happen