Russia's defensive lines are 'much more complex and deadly than anything experienced by any military in nearly 80 years,' retired general says
businessinsider.com
A former Army Ranger who fought in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Ukraine said the fighting in the Eastern European country was much worse than that in those other countries. David Bramlette told The Daily Beast that he had air support, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance when he was in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"The worst day in Afghanistan and Iraq is a great day in Ukraine," he said.
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Yes because if Ukraine threatens to gain territory within Russia's historic (pre-2014) border they will absolutely use nuclear weapons. They've made this clear, and honestly, they didn't have to.
No nuclear power has ceded any significant territory through open conflict since the advent of nuclear weapons. China won't, France won't, Russia won't, Pakistan won't, North Korea won't, the U.S. won't. It doesn't even have to be spoken out loud to be a known factor. If the deterrent of nuclear strikes won't protect your border, then you have absolutely nothing to lose by using them if you are even slightly concerned that you couldn't move the border back conventionally.
I'm not sure it's guaranteed that they would use nuclear weapons. The west and the rest of the world wouldn't stand idly by if that happened.
They have to. If you don't respond to territorial loss with nuclear weapons you have signalled to anyone with two brain cells that it's all up for grabs. If Ukraine can grab territory why can't Finland? Latvia? Estonia? China?
If Ukraine was obviously and clearly using Russian soil to take back their own and no more, then I think that would muddy the waters a bit.
Because Russia is the aggressor in this conflict? It's not like Ukraine decided to invade Russia for fun. Mind you I don't necessarily think that will matter to Putin, but it does make it a bit more gray than you're implying