If someone nukes you over such tepid words, they were likely to nuke you anyway at some point unless you backed down to every single escalation they made.
I don't think so, unless Putin has a death wish, which I doubt. Too narcissistic (egoistic) to have a death wish IMO (and very rich, hence a lot to lose or give up).
But if he is a bit narcissistic then we know it takes nothing to make him explode into one of those narcissistic anger OUTBURSTS (didn't happen yet, so maybe he is not narcissistic at all and a very friendly stable personality, but I won't bet on it)
And he might be very easily triggered now his war is not a kind of Blitzkrieg he might have thought
And a cornered cat (animal) can be very dangerous. And the officials around him are scared of him, hence if Putin loses it, we are all in trouble. They won't stop Putin I think
And if you think that is "asking for nukes", wait until you hear about the Russians threatening to nuke NATO...
I have the feeling that Putin is more trigger sensitive then those in the West. Although Russia(ns) are cool, nothing like the hot tempered Pakistani we heard threatening to nuke the West. Still, I think it's wise to not trigger on purpose such people