I mean, ww3 just isn't gonna happen. Well, there's a tiny possibility it might, but only in the sense that NATO fucks Russia. All it'd really take is air superiority. And NATO could achieve that in an extremely quick time. Might take a week, and it might take a day. But after that, there's not much you can do. Russia launches 500 nukes? (That's a very generous number). Either Russia receives back double that, or they get blown up before they can cause any "real" damage. That's not saying they won't cause damage, but chamces are, theres ways to intercept it.
I'm not a big fan of American governments. But I do have to admit, whilst they're actual army personal may not be as good as some lather countries, there's no way they're not spending billions and developing extreme tools. I mean, they lost their own stealth fighter.
The UK SAS are regarded as THE best in the world, with lots of other special forces being based on them. Poland is buying US tech. Germany is on the right side.
I don't know anything about militaries, but from my extremely basic understanding of the words armies, the US could supply air superiority. The British could probably infiltrate extremely well, as well as a ton of other EU special forces. I mean, one of them accidentally avoided the rest of their military for, I can't remember hoe ling, and it probably wouldn't take all that long to find where Putin is hiding.
On a closing note, it was supposed to be a 3 day operation. It's been over a year, and Russia still aren't sending their best aircraft. And the rest of the world aren't even handing over their very best tech.
If Putin tried starting WW3, it's a lose-lose. Either mutually assure destruction, or his people revolt and NATO slides in.
Am much less worried about putin, then india vs pakistan, when the water from himalaya dries up. Both have nukes. Billions of people that are seeeing their children dying from thirst, will probably go to extreme lengths.
I fear that survival instinct more then putin and chinas imperialistic greed.
Greed, while ugly, is more calculating, and do consider consequences.