The regime may be stupid, because its acts in its own interests seem stupid to someone expecting it to promote national interest, but it is not suicidal. There will never be 'boots on the ground' in Ukraine.
I would agree in the conventional sense that there won't boots on the ground. What wouldn't surprise me though would be "special advisors" (which is already allegedly happening), special operations forces, and private contractors being used on the ground in Ukraine. The reason for that is at least for American domestic politics, Joe Public hates it when his son or nephew gets killed in a war but it doesn't count when contractors or special ops units are used. (This is also true in Russian politics which is why Wagner is used so much.)
However, they'll continue to bully Russia in whatever other way they can, which may lead to escalation of the nuclear kind.
Russia isn't stupid or suicidal. As long as NATO forces don't march on Moscow, Russia won't let the nukes fly. Taking the L in Ukraine is preferable than seeing Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, NATO, and the U.S. all get nuked.
Russia isn't stupid or suicidal. As long as NATO forces don't march on Moscow, Russia won't let the nukes fly. Taking the L in Ukraine is preferable than seeing Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, NATO, and the U.S. all get nuked.
Engaging in nuclear escalation is quite smart from Russia's POV though. The fact that there has been too little of it is the reason why the empire has become so cavalier and arrogant, and pushing things further and further.
Obviously, there are many steps in nuclear escalation. It's not "use a first strike of all 6000 nukes", but you start smaller to tell people to back the hell off.
I would agree in the conventional sense that there won't boots on the ground. What wouldn't surprise me though would be "special advisors" (which is already allegedly happening), special operations forces, and private contractors being used on the ground in Ukraine. The reason for that is at least for American domestic politics, Joe Public hates it when his son or nephew gets killed in a war but it doesn't count when contractors or special ops units are used. (This is also true in Russian politics which is why Wagner is used so much.)
Russia isn't stupid or suicidal. As long as NATO forces don't march on Moscow, Russia won't let the nukes fly. Taking the L in Ukraine is preferable than seeing Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, NATO, and the U.S. all get nuked.
Engaging in nuclear escalation is quite smart from Russia's POV though. The fact that there has been too little of it is the reason why the empire has become so cavalier and arrogant, and pushing things further and further.
Obviously, there are many steps in nuclear escalation. It's not "use a first strike of all 6000 nukes", but you start smaller to tell people to back the hell off.