There's still a few steps left on the escalation ladder.

Conceivably I can see them detonating a nuke somewhere over the blacksea at a high enough altitude to minimise fallout as a demonstration that they are serious and have the capability.

Russia prefers a destroyed world over an intact one without Russia.

That much is true, but none of this is existential. If the Russian military packs up and heads home, Russia continues to exist. They don't want to do that ofc, but obviously Russia prefers an intact world with Russia compared to a destroyed world.

Russia: launches nuke…

West: does nothing because they don’t want to start WW3

Russia: that’s what I thought bitch

Seems to be the way things are going.

You see why you are called out. Putin will never use nukes. He will die if he does so and he fears for his life.

Nuclear weapons launched on the west only work as a threat, they don't actually work for anything really except that.

Secondly, they do not have any tactical gains to have from tactical nukes (and it seems they do no longer have the batallions needed to use them, so they'd nuke themselves as much as the Ukrainians), and they would lose support from China and India for using them which would really hasten the downfall of the Russian regime.

So no, there is no nUkes cOmMing.

Even I, a certified armchair general, knows this.

Edit: you got called out because you said this:

There's rumours that Russia is readying a RS26 missile at this very moment in retaliation.

If they actually do this, the war will go nuclear.

Very interesting news, kudos to you for finding and sharing them (really), but the rest is fear mongering.