That does seem a little removed from on-the-ground practicality though, and I’d place a not-insignificant weight to Putin getting so caught up in the war that he loses (lost?) sight of his original political objectives. Also, if he thinks China’s lost to him anyway for some reason, or that a show of insane power is the only way to restore his reputation (or something else of that sort), then he may even have some amount of positive incentive to drop a nuke on Ukraine. As long as it won’t start a world war, then I don’t see many scenarios where that wouldn’t pretty much immediately end the fighting with a symbolic victory on his side.
That does seem a little removed from on-the-ground practicality though, and I’d place a not-insignificant weight to Putin getting so caught up in the war that he loses (lost?) sight of his original political objectives. Also, if he thinks China’s lost to him anyway for some reason, or that a show of insane power is the only way to restore his reputation (or something else of that sort), then he may even have some amount of positive incentive to drop a nuke on Ukraine. As long as it won’t start a world war, then I don’t see many scenarios where that wouldn’t pretty much immediately end the fighting with a symbolic victory on his side.