> China and India are the only nuclear powers with a no-first-use policy

Moscow also guaranteed Ukraine’s security in the Budapest memorandum. Stated policy is a poor predictor of their actions.

How is that relevant to the comments you are replying to?

China does not need nuclear weapons to take Taiwan, and for both military and political reasons it would be incredibly stupid for them to resort to nuclear threats. And as mentioned they have a no-first-use policy.

> How is that relevant to the comments you are replying to?

It gives credence to Moscow’s no-first use commitment ringing hollow.

Russia does not have a "no-first-use commitment". The only countries with such a commitment are China and India.

> Russia does not have a "no-first-use commitment"

Sorry, you are correct. My general point was what Moscow says about its nuclear policy isn't particularly informative for predicting its behaviour. China has analogy in its breached commitments to Hong Kong.

Russia's list of what is acceptable use of nuclear power is actually pretty vague and includes "use of conventional weapons to pose an existential threat to Russia."

Putin said that dealing with street gangs in his youth taught him that when a fight is inevitable, he should strike first. Now we have a significant nuclear escalation on its way to Ukraine.