There are many speculative stories about the increasing threats of nuclear war by Russia. We now have the a Ukrainian "Sudetenland" land grab which of course Ukraine and the west won't recognize. So Ukraine will continue to take back its territory which Russia has now claimed as theirs. I found this article to be realistic and sober.
https://www.politico.com/news/2022/09/27/putin-nuke-russia-ukraine-intel-surveillance-00059020
U.S. steps up intel, surveillance after Putin’s nuke threats
Putin has made veiled references since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February that he might resort to using nuclear or chemical arms to change the course of the battle or if Russia itself is threatened.
However, those threats grew bolder last week when he said he was prepared to “use all the means available to us,” including “various weapons of destruction.”
“I’m not bluffing,” he added.
...
“Let’s imagine that Russia is forced to use the most fearsome weapon against the Ukrainian regime which had committed a large-scale act of aggression that is dangerous for the very existence of our state,” said Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chair of Russia’s Security Council, in a post on Telegram, Reuters reported.
...
Yet gaining advanced knowledge of any looming Russian attack would by definition be a hard task. Some two dozen Russian weapon systems can deliver both conventional explosives and low-yield nuclear warheads, said the first U.S. official.
And public estimates are that Russia has more than 1,900 tactical nuclear warheads, also referred to as non-strategic nuclear weapons.
...
Top intelligence officials have been stepping up their warnings in recent months about Russia’s growing reliance on tactical nuclear weapons in its military strategy.
Avril Haines, the director of national intelligence told Congress in February that Russia “is expanding and modernizing its large, diverse, and modern set of nonstrategic systems, which are capable of delivering nuclear or conventional warheads.”
“Moscow,” she added, “believes such systems offer options to deter adversaries, control the escalation of potential hostilities, and counter U.S. and allied troops near its border.”
U.S. military commanders and intelligence experts hope that the first indication that Russia has decided to go nuclear in Ukraine won’t be a mushroom cloud.
...
“We might think, ‘huh that’s a little bit different from the way they normally operate. They are sending in this one unit, but pulling everybody else back. That’s really different. That’s strange,’” the government official outlined one possible scenario.
Others think that the Putin regime may want to telegraph his intentions in the hope of gaining diplomatic leverage.
“I think that the Russians, if they are getting ready to do that, would be trying to signal that,” said Franklin Miller, a former veteran Pentagon official and National Security Council nuclear policy official in the George W. Bush administration. “They would, in an ostentatious manner, arrange for the nuclear rounds to come out of the special storage sites. They’d give us a hint that they’re moving munitions from central storage sites to firing units. And then give us more time to think about it and worry.”
...
But the first U.S. official is not counting on much notice. “For those smaller nuclear weapons, we’re probably not going to know.”
I just hope that the end result is different than this short Babylon 5 clip
https://www.politico.com/news/2022/09/27/putin-nuke-russia-ukraine-intel-surveillance-00059020
U.S. steps up intel, surveillance after Putin’s nuke threats
Putin has made veiled references since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February that he might resort to using nuclear or chemical arms to change the course of the battle or if Russia itself is threatened.
However, those threats grew bolder last week when he said he was prepared to “use all the means available to us,” including “various weapons of destruction.”
“I’m not bluffing,” he added.
...
“Let’s imagine that Russia is forced to use the most fearsome weapon against the Ukrainian regime which had committed a large-scale act of aggression that is dangerous for the very existence of our state,” said Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chair of Russia’s Security Council, in a post on Telegram, Reuters reported.
...
Yet gaining advanced knowledge of any looming Russian attack would by definition be a hard task. Some two dozen Russian weapon systems can deliver both conventional explosives and low-yield nuclear warheads, said the first U.S. official.
And public estimates are that Russia has more than 1,900 tactical nuclear warheads, also referred to as non-strategic nuclear weapons.
...
Top intelligence officials have been stepping up their warnings in recent months about Russia’s growing reliance on tactical nuclear weapons in its military strategy.
Avril Haines, the director of national intelligence told Congress in February that Russia “is expanding and modernizing its large, diverse, and modern set of nonstrategic systems, which are capable of delivering nuclear or conventional warheads.”
“Moscow,” she added, “believes such systems offer options to deter adversaries, control the escalation of potential hostilities, and counter U.S. and allied troops near its border.”
U.S. military commanders and intelligence experts hope that the first indication that Russia has decided to go nuclear in Ukraine won’t be a mushroom cloud.
...
“We might think, ‘huh that’s a little bit different from the way they normally operate. They are sending in this one unit, but pulling everybody else back. That’s really different. That’s strange,’” the government official outlined one possible scenario.
Others think that the Putin regime may want to telegraph his intentions in the hope of gaining diplomatic leverage.
“I think that the Russians, if they are getting ready to do that, would be trying to signal that,” said Franklin Miller, a former veteran Pentagon official and National Security Council nuclear policy official in the George W. Bush administration. “They would, in an ostentatious manner, arrange for the nuclear rounds to come out of the special storage sites. They’d give us a hint that they’re moving munitions from central storage sites to firing units. And then give us more time to think about it and worry.”
...
But the first U.S. official is not counting on much notice. “For those smaller nuclear weapons, we’re probably not going to know.”
I just hope that the end result is different than this short Babylon 5 clip