In a nuclear war, hundreds to thousands of detonations would occur within minutes of each other, resulting in tens to hundreds of millions of people dead or injured in a few days. But a few years after a nuclear war, global climatic changes caused by the many nuclear explosions could be responsible for the death of more than half of the human population on Earth.
I don’t see Russia using nuclear weapons in Ukraine for the reasons you stated as well as the fact that it would make Russia toxic geopolitically. Right now, most of the developing world is either aligned or at least neutral towards Russia. Using nukes would quickly change that.
The danger is that either US or Russia will mistake some event for a launch of strategic nuclear weapons and launch their own. Communications between US and Russia have deteriorated significantly and many important nuclear treaties have been rolled back.
I don’t see Russia using nuclear weapons in Ukraine for the reasons you stated as well as the fact that it would make Russia toxic geopolitically. Right now, most of the developing world is either aligned or at least neutral towards Russia. Using nukes would quickly change that.
The danger is that either US or Russia will mistake some event for a launch of strategic nuclear weapons and launch their own. Communications between US and Russia have deteriorated significantly and many important nuclear treaties have been rolled back.
As a side note, it’s also worth noting that even US admits that they are unable to track or intercept Russian hypersonic missiles. US currently isn’t able to produce hypersonic weapons of their own, so the balance does favor Russia in a first strike scenario at the moment.