Russia is not a superpower. They cannot halt an existential retaliation from our SSBNs and know they can lose in the event a US first strike. Hypersonic missiles, like the 60’s Styx missiles, do not change the strategic balance.
What changes the strategic balance is the deployment of Tomahawk missiles currently in Poland. Putin is not wrong, saying moving them to Ukraine is no good. He is not the bad guy here
We are not longer a super power either. We have no manufacturing base to sustain a protracted war. Worse than that, our leadership is insane from top to bottom.
“Russia is not a superpower. “
Call them what you want.
But they can deliver 1,000 nuke warheads upon US territory in 3 hours with 100% certainty.
And there is no force on earth that could prevent it.
So, now it just becomes a question of how important Ukraine is to each side.