That’s my hope too, I hope that China doesn’t consider nuclear war anywhere in the planet to be in its interests and will react accordingly, using its economic power to prevent it.
Nukes would kill or seriously injure everyone on the battlefield. Russian and Ukrainian.
They could target Kiev without hitting their own troops. But the NATO response would be crushing. I agree China would support NATO in punishing Russia.
Meanwhile, more and more cracks begin to appear. Criticism of how the special “military operation” and “limited mobilization” are being conducted are increasingly occurring on Russian state run media.
Putin Faces Unprecedented Criticism From Russian Leaders as Battlefield Losses Mount (msn.com)
yeah, uh, neanderthals with nukes, sure
Interesting quote from that article:
Guests on Kremlin-censored television shows aired since Friday specifically criticized Putin for his decision to force the supposed annexation before Russian troops had effectively controlled those zones and questioned whether they ever will – a development the think tank described as “dramatic changes in the Russian information space.”
The “think tank” they reference here is the Institute for the Study of War which seems to be a fairly reliable source.
We’ve been seeing carefully couched but definite complaints from the controlled Russian media as various Important People maneuver to throw each other under the bus (or out the window, as the case may be).
Maybe the second commentator in this video:
Even having known about the drinking habits of a lot of Russians, this war has really brought this to the forefront. I’ve seen many videos of totally shitfaced Russians that are already in uniform. If the alcoholism is as bad as it appears, that’s going to be a big medical problem in the field.
I’m not optimistic, but I hope you are right. As it is now, China has everything going it’s way. Cheap oil, a military enemy/neighbor that has been shown to be almost non-functional and is in the process of being pared down by casualties and desertions.
I so wish I understood Russian, a translation always misses the nuances that you can pick up if you understand the language.
This quote from Lt. Gen. McMaster, (Ret) is more bad news for Russia if it’s true:
He noted the Russian troops that left Lyman appeared to be among the first rounds of supposedly fresh troops Putin organized with his latest mobilization.
“Those forces were hastily trained, thrown into that front, and these are the forces that are collapsing right now,” he said.
Yeah, that’s my take-away as well. I have no idea how we’d go about it, but we have to eliminate these “I have thousands of nukes” nuclear states. China has more than enough deterrent with about 300 nukes, so there’s no reason the US and Russia couldn’t scale back by an order of magnitude.
300 nukes on hand is enough to make anyone think twice about attacking you directly, but it’s not enough to threaten the entire planet, and any one who tried it would face the wrath of every other nuclear power.
Maybe we can just do away with (most of?) the non-proliferation treaty? Put the US and Russia’s excess nukes up for sale to any stable nation-state that can demonstrate the basic competency to keep them secure and functional. Russia makes some serious bank on otherwise useless and expensive weapons, and other countries acquire an effective nuclear shield virtually overnight. Richer countries like Canada buy the top-shelf US nukes, while poorer countries go with the cheaper ex-Soviet stuff, just like every other weapon system 
I wonder too about the smoking habits of the new recruits. If the Russian supply problems extend to cigarettes (which I’m sure they do), then the Ukrainian army will just have to offer the soldiers a carton of Primas to switch sides.
Troops without adequate supply and little training should be retreating. That’s a sensible thing for them to do. Untrained troops are essentially civilians wearing uniforms. Civilians serving at the front lines are absolutely a liability and not an asset. Not only can they not use their weapons effectively against an enemy, but they - through no fault of their own - commit tactical mistakes that expose them and those around them to danger. Having poor situational awareness, they get themselves wounded disproportionately, thereby causing more competent troops to have to rescue them and provide first aid. Plus they consume food and tax logistics without providing value on the battlefield.
Russia looks to be increasingly screwed because even if they manage to successfully mobilize 300k troops who is going to train them? Typically, training battalions would perform this task, but Russian command made the choice months ago to commit their trainers to the front lines.
Russian generals ‘cobble together battalions of cooks and trainers’ (thenationalnews.com)
Article from a few days ago here, in which a former British Army officer in charge of Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) Forces says nukes are unlikely to be used by Russia:
https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/28/opinions/how-close-putin-nuclear-war-de-bretton-gordon
TL,DR: Russia’s strategic nukes are probably in decent operating condition, but Putin knows that using them is a suicide bid. Russia’s tactical nukes (or at least their vehicles and mobile launchers) are probably in less certain operating condition; moreover, they’d need to move much closer to Ukraine to be within range, and as soon as they start moving in that direction, the US and NATO will take notice and likely eliminate them with precision strikes before they can launch (he suspects Russia has already been warned along these lines).
Or in the future, they may not even have uniforms:
The US may have already told Putin the exact location of each launcher, as well as it’s operational condition, and some info about just how it will be destroyed. Information that Putin himself does not even know, because the commanders of the units have been lying to him for years.
It’s not just a question of how likely nukes are to be used, but how likely it is that any weapons are to be used. As it stands, if you’re a significant nuclear power, you pretty much have carte blanche to attack any non-nuclear power, and no one will directly confront you on the battlefield over that, for fear of triggering the end of the world kind of scenarios.
But if nukes were somewhat more limited, we’d have more freedom of choice in how we respond to things like the attack on Ukraine. NATO could have enforced a no-fly zone from Day One, if we weren’t so concerned with the nuclear risks of directly confronting Russia.
Having a few nukes gives you quite good protection against invasion - if Ukraine could realistically threaten to nuke Moscow, would we be where we are today? - but it doesn’t give you enough cover to run around attacking other countries, especially if they also have a few nukes.
AFAIK, the bulk of those called up are trained to some extent- they served in the military sometime in the past, maybe a decade or so past or even more. So, they likely know how to fire their rifle, salute, and such stuff. But even if they had technical training back then- have they retained it, or maybe it is totally outdated.
A significant number of embassies are manned right now. Foreign nationals have returned. Such a strike would be considered an attack on NATO and other nations.
For your entertainment pleasure
The regulars tried to take cell phones and personal items from the new conscripts. The new conscripts beat the shit out of the regulars who had to lock themselves in a building to escape.
How much is a carton of smokes and a fifth of vodka? That may well be cheaper than sending weapons. 
That’s what I said upthread. I’m a veteran and in their place I would either surrender or desert at the first opportunity. They have shitty gear and shitty leaders. They are just unable to put up a coherent defense, much less an offense.
It’s nice to have these comedic episodes every once in a while. Ukrainians need a bit of laughter in their lives, it’s only fair the Russians provide it.
I’d love to see Putin’s reaction. We might find the event funny, but this is exactly the sort of thing that leads to a general mutiny in the armed forces.