This is similar to US vs. Japan war in 1945 when the US had to escalate by bombing Hiroshima and Nagasaki to persuade the Japanese govt. to surrender.
Ukraine will not surrender and is getting more and more better supplies which will kill more and more Russian troops.
Putin will not accept defeat no matter of extent of troops losses, but the reserves and morale are low.
It seems the only way for Putin to win this war is to bomb Ukraine.
Putin may temporarily not lose the war in Ukraine by bombing it, but Russia itself will lose immediately if he would do that. There is no country in the world, including Iran, China, India, probably even North Korea, which would support Russia anymore in this case. None. Complete isolation. All Putin can currently lose is a "special operation" in Ukraine, and Crimea. If he uses nukes, he will lose Russia. And even then he won't win in Ukraine either. There is no way in hell Ukraine would bow to Putin, not even after nukes. Actually, considering how weak Russia is, Ukraine may attack main Russia in this case with all it has left. And Putin would need to nuke his own country to stop them.
But I like to think that there are some sane people left in the Kremlin who wouldn't let that happen anyway. Putin doesn't have full power over nukes at his will.


