I still think we need to give Putin an out here. Obviously, diplomacy is done behind the scenes, but in the interest of keeping Putin's dumb ass from even trying to escalate this in any way, we need to work in that direction.
I think you can see it starting to happen here:
Zelensky is open to pausing calls to join NATO, discussing Putin-backed regions of Ukraine in negotiations.
I'm a little less concerned about Russia using nukes because Putin has to avoid getting a shiv in the throat from the oligarchs/military leadership in his own country, and his handlers in China wouldn't want that either. They just want to keep doing business and expand their influence. Can't do that in a hot war. He tested the waters by trying to rupture a nuclear power plant, and even that got so much pushback that the Russian military didn't go all the way.
I just know this dude is humiliated. Projecting all that strength and then getting exposed like this on the world stage is wild. It's a "shoot yourself in the head" level L.