“For the life of me I cannot understand why Russia does not employ nukes.”
Russia can’t employ nukes because it would contaminate not only large parts of Europe but even large parts of Russia itself. The nuclear fallout would be drifting with the winds all over the place.
Also, the main war zones are in the 4 Eastern Ukrainian regions Russia has officially annexed. According to the Kremlin those 4 regions are Russian now.
So it would be a political suicide for the Kremlin if it attacked its own Russian territory with nuclear weapons.
Using nukes would also show that Russias conventional army is incapable of fighting against a few Ukrainian defenders. Russia would look spectacularly weak.
Russia in imperialistic but it’s not masochistic.
5 Kiloton tactical nukes won’t contaminate much of anything for long.
Chernobyl released at least 1,000X that amount.
Red herring.