President Vladimir Putin warned Western countries on Thursday that there was a genuine risk of nuclear war if they sent their own troops to fight in Ukraine, and he said Moscow had the weapons to strike…
Another day, another threat of nuclear retaliation against the West by Putin.
Realistically, if Russia were to launch missiles against European capitals, how long a warning would the inhabitants get? What about North America (USA, Canada)?
Does NATO have the capability of in-flight interception? Or other defense mechanisms?
How deep underground is safe to protect against a modern nuclear blast?
You're right, and additionally he can't just decide to use them unilaterally. Launching those nukes would take a bunch of egotistical, self-centered sociopaths all deciding to commit suicide together.
Thankfully, not even Putin can launch missiles on his own. For one, I wouldn't expect him to even know how.
There have been nuclear scares before, and the goodness of man has often prevented them. Famously, during the cold war, Russian computers erroneously detected a US missile launch, and despite being ordered to retaliate, Stanislav Petrov correctly deduced it was an error and did not launch.
The difference is that unlike Ukraine, the West is entirely capable of making enough Russians hurt in retaliation that even if Putin survives the exchange he's looking at going the way of the Romanovs once the survivors outside the bunkers get to him.