>>45786
I don't think war between Nuclear powers is that unlikely, both know the effects nukes would have and also know the others do too, so they know they would be unlikely to be used particularly in a war like this.

I think the real issue is that even conventionally, the US has no way to stop Russia. It doesn't have the forces to spare that would be needed to face the size of the forces Russia already has in the area and mustering those forces would be expensive and draw the population into a war they don't want(and maybe even give China Taiwan). That goes for NATO as a whole as well, sure they could mobilize all forces and march to the Ukrainian border but they won't, it's just too expensive and too much effort, they don't want to waste resources and lives on Ukraine. All that would be left would be sending small forces but against such a force they won't achieve much and only serve to sever any ties they had with Russia and in the event of a loss(which would be likely) they will loose face and whatever they sent.