[cbg0]

The real fear is political due to Russia's hybrid war which has pushed a lot of pro-Russia isolationist parties ahead in many EU countries. Starting a conventional war against Russia carries a higher risk of these "pro-neutrality/pro-peace" parties rising to power than any nukes dropping.

Putin is stretched very thin and this fiasco in the Ukraine has shown that Russia can barely take on one country, even though once they were touting themselves as equal or better than the US.