An hour ago, Putin radically changed the world geopolitical situation by launching nuclear blackmail of the US and NATO. Putin ordered Shoigu and Gerasimov to “put Russian nuclear deterrence forces to a special mode of alert."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0Ywx2fuXEUAs it follows from his words, nuclear blackmail is directed not so much against Ukraine, but even more against “Western countries preparing to impose economic and financial sanctions” and “officials of NATO countries making unflattering statements” against the aggressor.
If the United States and the entire NATO bloc do not immediately respond to this nuclear blackmail with an adequate reaction, appropriate to the situation and capable of cooling the ardor of the Kremlin master, then Putin, inspired by the weak response of the West or its complete absence, will like to use the tool of nuclear blackmail in relation to any country in the world.
Then we will not even talk about Ukraine, and not even about the 1997 line demanded by him, designed to provide Putin, in accordance with the fantasies of his inflamed brain, with the “sphere of interests, influence, control in Eastern and Central Europe” he coveted, but also about the liquidation of NATO and the humiliating defeat of the United States.