Putin doesn't want to keep fighting in Ukraine — but he's unable to win

The Russian leader has no way to retire gracefully after all the damage he has done — this means he might yet drop a nuke, as he once again threatened this week

For Putin, nuclear escalation would not be a way of snatching victory from the jaws of defeat, but of snatching survival — political or even physical — from the maw of oblivion. Picture: Russian Presidential Press Service via AP

Russian president Vladimir Putin doesn’t want to use nuclear weapons, just as he doesn’t want to still fight his “special military operation” against Ukraine. But he is still fighting — because he’s unable to win.

That also means he might yet drop a nuke, as he once again threatened this week. The US and its allies — and Putin’s putative friends in China and elsewhere — need to decide now how they would react.