The scenario U.S. officials and outside experts worry most about is this:
If Putin faces a humiliating defeat in Ukraine, he might order the use of tactical nuclear weapons against military units or cities to try to shock the Ukrainians into surrendering…
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Stanford nuclear scholar Scott Sagan has suggested another step — private warnings to Russian military leaders that they would be held responsible for war crimes if they used tactical nuclear weapons against civilian targets.
“The United States has a long history of hunting down war criminals,” he told me. “Russian generals may be reluctant to cross the nuclear threshold … and the United States should reinforce that reluctance by adding very personal reasons for restraint.”
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