re: Is Putin crazy enough or have the balls to use nukes against Ukraine?

This conflict has reached an odd equilibrium at this point. Russia doesn’t have the ability to advance in mass because they lack any real counter to Ukraine’s drone screens at the front. Ukraine doesn’t have the manpower to do large scale advances. Neither side can break through and make massive territorial gains and instead the front is a meat grinder.

Without the ability to overrun the enemy, Ukraine is looking to cutoff Crimea from all power and supplies to starve them out and Russia is lobbing what ever they can at the Ukraine in attempts to continue to bleed Ukrainian support. Ukraine is now producing more long range weapons and drones than Russia and is using that new surplus to target Russian oil infrastructure and now what little modern logistics companies are still operating to make the war an everyday hardship to the average Russian citizen.

There really is no quick end in sight for either side. Russia can’t overwhelm the Ukrainian positions due to drones making the element of surprise virtually impossible and Ukrainian drones (and attrition in both artillery systems and ammo) have an effective perimeter stretching many kilometers into the Russian side of the front. But Russia still has more than enough manpower to hold what they have and are best off just hoping the attrition on both sides will make it impossible for the Ukraine to man the front. Technology can only do so much and no drone has ever gained ground (at least for right now) in a combat scenario.