The Ukrainian leadership all but dismissed the nuclear threat. In their view, Putin would threaten repeatedly but never press the button. Even if he did, some told me, how could it be worse than his leveling of whole cities? Their bigger fear was that Putin’s bluff would work and lead the West to back off. This was the unspoken follow-on to Milley’s nuclear paradox: The more the Ukrainians were successful and Putin blustered, the more tempted the West would be to warn the Ukrainians against taking back too much of their own territory.
