I’d also add that during the very first statement Putin made announcing the invasion, on February 24, 2022, he ended it with what I imagine was intended to be interpreted as a nuclear threat:
“On conducting a special military operation” (Russian: О проведении специальной военной операции, romanized: O provedenii spetsialʹnoy voyennoy operatsii) was a televised broadcast by Russian president Vladimir Putin on 24 February 2022, announcing the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Warning against international intervention
At the end of the address, Putin warned other countries against intervening in the conflict, saying:
Whoever tries to interfere with us, and even more so to create threats for our country, for our people, should know that Russia’s response will be immediate and will lead you to such consequences that you have never experienced in your history. We are ready for any development of events. All necessary decisions in this regard have been made. I hope that I have been heard.[12][10][13]
I don’t have a unified timeline of everyone’s activity, but we authorized military aid the next day, so I don’t think that the statement had a very extensive deterrent effect.
U.S. Air Force Gen. Tod D. Wolters, commander, U.S. European Command and NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Europe announces the activation of the NATO Response Force.
The Biden administration authorizes $350 million in military assistance from Defense Department inventories.