General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Forget No-Fly Zones, experts feel Putin could use nukes anyway due to current NATO pressure [View all]NickB79
(19,301 posts)But he will be much more likely to launch ICBM's if NATO attacks Russia itself, as we would have to do to enforce a no-fly zone. Russian anti-aircraft missile batteries a hundred miles inside Russian territory would need to be hit, or our jets will be targeted over Ukraine.
And I draw a sharp line between the two types of nuclear threat. Human civilization isn't threatened by a few tactical nukes against Ukraine. Tactical nukes delivered by fighter-launched missiles like the Iskander against a non-NATO state won't trigger an automatic NATO counterstrike.
Civilization is most certainly is threatened if Putin feels his homeland is being physically invaded, and deploys the MAD solution with hundreds of megatons of warheads from subs and missile silos. That's a planetary death sentence.