"IF" NATO gets involved Russia will occupy the Baltic States QUICKLY since they form a dagger into the heart of Russia. Russia can not risk NATO using airfields in the Baltic States for staging aircraft to use against Russia

(for those of you unfamiliar with geography of that area PLEASE pull out a map and look at it. Leningrad is right there ... and from the Baltic States they can cut the river/canal system and most if not all of the railroads that links St. Petersburg to the heart of Russia)

Also ... "IF" NATO gets involved Russia has to take out ALL front line NATO airfields QUICKLY, before aircraft can be moved up to them from Western Europe and from the US.

Hopefully NATO and it's member countries will NOT get involved in the upcoming nasty dispute between Ukraine and Russia. If they do you are looking at a General European War, but one that will go down QUICKLY.

Remember Germany only has 500 tanks left, and the US excluding the armor it just moved into southern Europe via Greece (1000 tanks plus support equipment reportedly) only has ONE armored brigade in Europe (about 120 tanks) and all those pre stockpiled armor and equipment we kept there for decades was brought back stateside years ago.

IF NATO gets involved the entire war will revolve around Air Power. Planes, Drones, and Air Defense capabilities. Tanks today are useless if the country using them does NOT have control of the air ... so THAT is where the battle will be fought "IF" NATO gets involved.