Contricusc, the USSR dissolved from within, under peaceful circumstances.
Surely you grasp the difference to what you're proposing, right? Like, it's coming as bad-faith discussion with you at this point, seems the other guy's probably right about you.
While the circumstances were different, it doesn’t mean the outcome can’t be the same. Think about the rebelion in Cecenia. They sent the military to quell the rebelion. What would have happened if at that time the Russia military was fighting a serious war like the one in Ukraine and didn’t have the resources to fight the Cecen rebels?
Do you think they would have stopped the rebels with nukes? It is more likely that they would have just negotiated with them and allowed for an independent Cecenia, because they would have had no better option if the army was not in a position to intervene.
NATO has zero desire to curbstomp Russia as a nation-state into broken-up oblivion, as it likewise has zero interest in Russia coming apart at the seams through violent internal strife/upheaval.
Unfortunately NATO just wants to weaken Russia, not to desintegrate it. This is why they are not helping Ukraine sufficiently and are not allowing it to strike in Russia using the donated missiles. I just hope that the situation will evolve in a way that Russia’s collapse will become inevitable despite NATO not trying to achieve that.
Call that weak if you will. Most people call that "we'd like a non-irratiated planet to continue".
This thing with nukes and an irradiated planet is just a scary story not anchored in reality. First of all, even if it would come to a few nukes being used in a war, it will be most likely to happen on the frontline with tactical nukes, which don’t cause too much radiation.
As for a “radiated world” because some bigger nukes have been detonated, that’s just another myth. Think about the time when nukes were being developed and tested. There used to be nukes being detonated all the time.
There have been over 500 atmospheric detonations and over 1500 underground ones, yet we don’t live in an irradiated planet and humans did not go extinct. And keep in mind that the Soviets once detonated the Tsar bomb, which was much bigger than any strategic nuke of today, as it was too big to be delivered by any other means than a gravitational drop. And dispite all that, the world didn’t end, it just moved on.
Don’t get me wrong, I am not advocating for the use of nuclear weapons, I’m just pointing out that this scary scenario with the world being ended if a few nukes are used is complete bonkers.
At this point I think I'm done with you, though. We'll just have to wait and see how this thing pans out, we'll resume the "did the invincible glorious Ukraine show every military analyst that their weaknesses were purely made up and vanquish the evil Russian orcs?" hypothetical a couple years down the line. Keep on keepin' on, though.
We shall see what happens in the future. I just hope Ukraine will continue to receive strong support in both weapons and money so they can continue the war and consume Russia. They will soon develop even better long range weapons themselves, and they will be able to inflict even more damage to mainland Russia, so there is hope.