In many ways, Russia remains a third-world country. Other than lacquer boxes, have you ever bought anything made in Russia? Didn't think so. Everything that they manufacture is shit. Half of the tanks they brought into Ukraine broke down and were abandoned, now providing a large source of tanks for Ukraine, which changes the markings, fixes them, and uses them against the Russians.
Putin would be foolish to even try to use nuclear weapons because they would likely fail, spectacularly. Explode on the launchpad, or equivalent. The reason why they have more warheads is because they know this. They would have to launch 8 warheads in order to hope that one of them actually found its target and exploded.
Undoubtedly, there is some NATO action that would trigger Putin to do something foolish, but "we" haven't reached that threshold yet. I can't believe no one has taken him out yet. Seldom has there been an international crisis of this magnitude where one person is the entire cause, and this fact is universally known and accepted. And yet, there he sits.
Putin used up his newer tanks which were no match for our Javelin missiles. Now he's pulling old T-62's out of storage. His tank problem, among others, is a direct result of the sanctions that have been imposed over the years. The west has hurt him. This war isn't about Ukraine, it's about hurting Putin....
As Lloyd Austin put it:
"We want to see Russia weakened to the degree that it can't do the kinds of things that it has done in invading Ukraine."
So this is US policy against Russia using the sons and daughters of Ukraine as pawns for our end.