Nordstream was blown up by the West, either by the US or with direct help from the US. The odds were about 50:1 that this was the case based upon who benefits two weeks ago.

Sweden has said they know who blew up Nordstream, but are leaving the EU investigation out of security concerns.

Germany has said they know who blew up Nordstream, but will not say for national security concerns.

There would be security concerns and no national security issues for Sweden or Germany in confirming that Russia blew up their own pipeline. Ergo: It was the US or a Western ally.

I agree, the same may be said of a nuclear device. It would be a way to force the US / NATO into the war. This is 100% what Ukraine wants, and 100% what Russia does not want. Ergo: It won't be Russia setting of a dirty bomb or a tactical nuke.

Here is a link to https://liveuamap.com/ This map is put out by the Ukraine military general staff. That is, it is pro-Ukraine. Every day you can see that Russia is attacking and particularly boming, and Ukraine is not doing much in return.

Russia took about 120,000 km2 from Ukraine since the beginning of the war. Ukraine took back about 10,000 km2 of that back in series of stunning victories in the last month. So Ukraine has recovered about 10% of what they lost. That is still a crushing victory for Russia, and the war - sadly - is far from over and getting worse.

The Ukraine offenses have stalled in Kharkov (Russia slowly pushing back) Russia pushing into Bakhmut (I expect it will be a month at least before that bitter fight is over). Russia crushed the Ukrainian Kherson offensives so thoroughly that you won't even find them mentioned in the Western MSM.

Now that Ukraine has had some success would be the right time to sue for peace. I feel horribly bad for the average Ukrainians too poor to escape what will be a savage winter. Now is the time for negotiations, before the lack of power slows Ukrainian reinforcements and freezes the poor.