“Supposed red lines have turned pink over time,” a European official told Semafor in June. Some Russian experts suggested that because of diminishing Western fears, Moscow ought to consider more aggressive responses, such as setting off a nuclear weapon to “convince our opponents of Moscow’s readiness to escalate,” a member of a Kremlin-affiliated think tank argued. The objective would be to “to re-establish deterrence,” a Russian nuclear policy researxher wrote on X.
If setting of that nuke was done immediately that would’ve been clear. Setting that of after two weeks would only give the signal that week long raids are no problem and Russia just isn’t fast enough to handle that.