What Putin is feeling out is the very real possibility he uses a nuke on Kyiv or invades/attacks a NATO member and Europe just wrings their hands and turns away.

edit: there's no difference between launching a conventional cruise missile and one armed with a nuclear warhead. You'll only know after the attack not before.

The attacks in Europe have been slowly escalating.

And Russia hasn’t really had pushback.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5ylm3m67n2o