Tell me, which NATO members would be willing to declare war on Russia and risk a direct confrontation with the largest nuclear power in the world to defend Poland?
Article five is about defending a member country that was unilaterally attacked by a third party... for instance Turkey cannot invade Syria and then demand HATO support that invasion if Syria or another country responds to their attack.
Article five is about defending allies from outside aggression... but if you picked the fight yourself they are under no obligation to help you.
Note Turkey didn't get involved in the war in Iraq and was not obliged to because the US was not defending itself it was attacking.
I still presume none of that will happen because Poland has a big conventional army and if they push in while AFU is still a thing, it will create problems for the Russians.
There are no threats or targets inside the Ukraine that warrant the use of nuclear weapons by Russia, but a large conventional HATO force entering the conflict does warrant the use of nuclear weapons... any open armed conflict with HATO warrants that when it means they could advance and attack (new) Russian territory.
The game the west has been playing is escalation so Polish troops in western Ukraine without agreement could easily lead to Polish troops moving eastwards to help Kiev reclaim lost territory... which threatens Russian territory which justifies the use of Nukes... it is Russian law.
Poland could drag itself into a war and not evoke Article 5 but use "passive" support from NATO like Ukraine has.
The Polish armed forces entering the conflict is different from fighting Ukraine... Russia thinks plenty of Ukrainians are just brain washed Russias. Russia knows Poles are not Russians and their leadership rabidly hates Russians and Russia... so there is no need to not go overkill when it comes to Polish forces... which means nuclear weapons become a useful and reasonable option.
F-16 operating from abroad will have to be tackled in some other way than the easiest "just destroy it on the ground".
Getting them in the air will get the pilots too.
Working out where they took off from means potentially getting the ground crew and support equipment too.
P.S. if you think RF would nuke Poland if it decides to involve itself, why they didn't do it to Ukraine then?
Because in a conventional war against only the Ukraine even if supplied with western weapons and ammo they know they will win.
Start adding the conventional forces of Poland and other HATO states and the numbers change and the threat of a repeat of Korea rears its ugly head but with Kiev shelling and carrying out terrorist attacks on Russians that would be something Russia could not tolerate... which was part of why they started the war in the first place... kiev was going to keep killing people and getting stronger.
No it cannot only justification for using nukes is being nuked yourself, or if your capital is being marched on.
You have not read their doctrine then?
A HATO force helping a terrorist power attack new Russian territory is grounds for using nukes, because their goal is to take back new Russian territories, and Russian doctrine basically states that nukes can be used if the territorial integrity of Russia is threatened... I suspect it was in case the Japs tried to take the Kurile islands by force or if the Europeans tried to take Kaliningrad by force, but it applies here too.
Russia would not nuke Poland, but it has a lot of different options that could cause incredible damage to it without going nuclear.
If Poland sends a large conventional military force into western Ukraine then nuking them there would make more sense than letting them move through the Ukraine to the eastern areas where the fighting is and most of the damage has been inflicted.
Equally if Polish troops officially enter Ukrainian territory then hitting them in Poland and on the border could also be an option too.
Obviously give them warnings first, but they will be ignored as usual.
Of course command posts, radars, airfields, military industries, ammo depots, fuel depots, naval bases, rail junctions, etc.. will all be targeted - they will have to be as they're involved in direct hostilities against Russia.
Which of course will be reported as hospitals and churches and schools and animal shelters and zoos and museums...
Can't see Poland moving into Ukraine without attacking Kaliningrad too...
And then they can nuke the hell out of them.... why not... if they don't then they risk other HATO countries joining Poland in attacking Russia or Belarus.
Americans were even more aggressive. They pretty much said if the ICC arrests an American they would come down and kill them.
The americans passed a law that said any American held by the ICC can be broken out of prison by force by the US military...
A bet a few crates of those guns would satisfy the collector/enthusiest demand.
Those thompsons would not be much use there because I doubt they could get the ammo for it... not a common calibre in that region...