Ukraine has long decided that they will not be deterred by the threat of nuclear bombs. They seem to be determined to win back the territory that they have lost or at least put themselves into a better bargaining position.
It's wildly unclear whether that calculus is too risky, too cautious, or completely unmoored from reality. About all that we do know is that Russia hasn't nuked anybody... yet.
and putin owns trump, so that's not a nuke thing
Which means there's an intermediate step: carrying out an above ground nuclear test. This obviously violates the Test Ban Treaty, but is a lower step than just blowing away Kyiv.
And territorial expansion and conquest of neighboring countries is Russia's MO, not Ukraine's.
Oreshnik alone could decapitate the EU in under 30 minutes.
Spoiler: it's absolutely useless. Russia does have great weapons that CAN hurt a lot, but Oreshnik is not one of them.
http://smoothiex12.blogspot.com/2026/05/the-best-version-of....
Russia's definition or the western concept of land grab.
Putin laid it out very clearly in his speeches. They are not interested in a land grab, they want to denazify The Ukraine and liberate the Russian speaking regions.
Denazification means more banderaites and by extension no more NATO.
