Putin has been holding the threat of using nuclear weapons (in Ukraine and elsewhere) over our US heads, if we put boots on the ground or directly supply our war planes to protect a no-fly zone over Ukraine. Putin knows that’s his ace-in-the-hole for the US (and other NATO nations) to supply limited weaponry only for Ukraine’s defense.

But there’s more to this apparently unbalanced advantage than meets the obvious untrained eye. Putin is getting backed into a military corner with all of Russia’s military losses, including generals. If that continues, what will he resort to save face. Will he stop at nothing to save face, Including the release of nuclear weapons-tactical and/or otherwise?

Certainly he must be aware that nuclear confrontation is suicide for all parties involved. And most probably for the world at large, if not immediately, then eventually. But we don’t want to defeat him “too much” to place him in that position of caring not if civilization continues to exist, if he can’t have his cake and eat it too. One 60s journalist likened it to the Cuban missile crisis, where President Kennedy had to put his foot down on Nikita Khrushchev military neck in Cuba, but not leaving it there indefinitely as a chock hold (i.e., George Floyd).

So in retrospect, it’s utterly critical that we leave a “saving face” strategy for Putin to stop the war before he’s totally convinced his “military exercise” is totally lost–and his current presidency along with it. His war must culminate in at least a win-win facade for him to save his presidential face, I would suppose.