Nah what I'm saying is Russia been using kiddie gloves only used their special forces and mercenaries, and stayed mostly clear of destroying the country in like war sense. They thought Zelensky would negotiate and end the SMO quickly. Instead Ukraine put the gloves on and went mandatory conscription put their military at full capacity and fighting with every tooth and nail.. Putin got ego'd because Ukraine were getting some Ws and russia were losing some territory which they didn't think it was possible and was a bad look and declared mobilization. Basically this is war now.
Nah.
Russia has not been using kiddie gloves.
Mauripol was an example of that.
Russia has been all in with this and have lost an unbelievable amount of troops, equipment, and legitimacy as a military power. Current US intelligence estimates that Russia has suffered over 80,000 casualties (dead, wounded, or captured) since the star of the war. That's an average of 10,000 per month, 333 per day. Russia has also lost over 1/3 of their entire tank fleet. The effectiveness of their artillery is quickly falling off a cliff as they dig deeper into the stockpile and pulling out shells from 1967. They have also lost air superiority in every region of Ukraine.
Russia's hubris, incompetence, piss-poor strategy, and underestimating of the Ukrainians is why they've lost this war. What will be their humiliation is their overestimating the average Russian citizen's will to join the war effort. 'Mobilization' is political speak for 'draft'. Widespread protests have broken out across the country against this. Every flight out of Russia is booked. The Russian people don't want this war anymore.
This isn't Putin "taking the gloves off". This Putin getting desperate. And it will be his undoing.
Nukes? Forget it. He, and every Russian, would be dead within 10 minutes of him pushing the button. That is... if a duty-bound general doesn't shoot him before he can push it.