“If we don’t win, we will have to use nuclear weapons, because we can’t lose….Does anyone really think Russia will accept defeat and not use its nuclear arsenal?”

Putin, the incompetent Commander in Chief who chooses the time and type of attack on his smaller neighbor, is now being so widely humiliated that even North Korea is telling the United States to “keep its mouth shut” and stop “tarnishing” its image by linking North Korea to arms supplies for Russia.  The North Korea statement, which is hilarious, as reported by Reuters, said in part:

SEOUL, Sept 22 (Reuters) – North Korea on Thursday said it has never supplied weapons or ammunition to Russia and has no plans to do so, while warning the United States to “keep its mouth shut” and stop circulating rumours aimed at “tarnishing” the country’s image.

“Recently, the U.S. and other hostile forces talked about the ‘violation of a resolution’ of the UNSC, spreading a ‘rumour of arms dealings’ between the DPRK and Russia … We have never exported weapons or ammunition to Russia before and we will not plan to export them,” KCNA quoted the country’s vice director general of the General Bureau of Equipment of the Ministry of National Defence as saying in a statement, without naming the official.

Faced with such hazing by North Korea, and continued defeats and loss of territory in Ukraine, the Putin cohort in Moscow finally wakes up to the real and likely end of their invasion of Ukraine by military defeat.

Emotional Russian elites then announced, through Putin, that they will not be defeated!  They will use nuclear weapons!

As reported in the Financial Times, nationalist Russian tycoon Konstantin Malofeyev said:

“If we don’t win, we will have to use nuclear weapons, because we can’t lose,” he added. “Does anyone really think Russia will accept defeat and not use its nuclear arsenal?”

To wit, Putin added, in his own threat of using nuclear weapons, “I’m not bluffing.”

Uh-huh.

Oh, to have such a simplistic view of the world, almost childlike, which goes like this: nuclear weapons are the most powerful on the planet, we have them, we are at war, and we should use them to win.

The United States has a number of really good options if Putin uses tactical nuclear weapons or strategic nuclear weapons:

1. Respond with Nukes.   This would back up the deterrence threat, if you use nuclear weapons, so will I.  This threat of retaliation is such that it prevents nuclear weapons from being used in the first place.
2. Take the Gloves Off.  This option would be to take control of the skies over Russian airspace, where they are marshaling men and equipment and have deployed thousands of artillery which the Russians view as safely behind their borders.  With NATO air superiority over Ukraine and Russian territory being used to attack Ukraine, first, Russian air defenses would be wiped out.  Second, men and material still in Ukraine would be destroyed like a boy with a fly who is pulling off parts of it at will.  Then, NATO airpower would devastate the Russian artillery behind its border.  And then sink the Black Sea fleet.

There is some thought that the Russian military, acutely aware of the possible consequences of using nuclear weapons, would kill Putin first, before following his order to use nukes.

I am skeptical of that view.  The reason is simple: the Russian military is being destroyed, literally piece-by-piece, and the Russian military has not shot Putin the incompetent.