Clear your head. Russia now has unstoppable conventional weapons that can target No. 10 Downing Street, or Whitehall, or Big Ben. Or render airfields useless. There is no need to "go nuclear," when you can achieve all the same results with conventional weapons. A first taste of that might put the fear of God into British leadership: the Russians are not deterred by the onus of nuclear initiation.
It is not about what would happen in a conflict - it is about posturing. Putin is sending (yet another) warning, that the EU west is not just ignoring, but intentionally crossing over as much as possible.
If Putin was as reactionary as they painted him - the world would already be at a hot kinetic war. I suspect the message is mostly for the public as in 'Look I warned you for 2years this would happen if you dont stop', and whatever sane heads exist in the West.
Clear your head. Russia now has unstoppable conventional weapons that can target No. 10 Downing Street, or Whitehall, or Big Ben. Or render airfields useless. There is no need to "go nuclear," when you can achieve all the same results with conventional weapons. A first taste of that might put the fear of God into British leadership: the Russians are not deterred by the onus of nuclear initiation.
It is not about what would happen in a conflict - it is about posturing. Putin is sending (yet another) warning, that the EU west is not just ignoring, but intentionally crossing over as much as possible.
If Putin was as reactionary as they painted him - the world would already be at a hot kinetic war. I suspect the message is mostly for the public as in 'Look I warned you for 2years this would happen if you dont stop', and whatever sane heads exist in the West.
Not to mention, the Russians throw nothing away. they have thousands of artillery pieces from WWII.