It seems to me that Putin is willing to risk nuclear war and the destruction of Russia in his pursuit of taking back , at least in part, what was lost to the USSR in the past 30 years.
He knows that if he he carries out his warning to use nuclear weapons against any country which tries to stop...
If one single nuclear bomb is launched from either side that'll be the end. I can't see you can have a limited nuclear exchange. Whether we have one nuclear sub or one hundred it's all quite academic.
Apparently soldiers have rolled across into the Ukraine from Belarus close to the Polish border. I'm sure the Polish armed forces are going to be on high alert even at this stage. This looks very messy.
Putin's speech on what would happen to any country who tries to stop him taking Ukraine makes me assume he's not ruling out nuclear weapons. Something along the lines of " the consequences will be something that no one has ever experienced in history"
He's a madman. Plain and simple.
He doesn't want Ukraine joining NATO.
His problem is once he's taken all of Ukraine, he'll have a NATO country on his border. If he threatens that country it'll ramp up the chances of a war. Economic sanctions alone won't likely be enough. On their own they look weak.
I lived in Surrey in 1987. That storm, though it effected less of the UK than this, was far, far worse than what we've had so far. Truly frightening. Never want to experience anything of that magnitude again.