“Perhaps Putin is preparing to fight a future war using Ukraine as the training ground?”
With the Soviets, I would think that for several reasons to take over Western Europe (spread ideology, get rid of a beacon to the Soviet people, feed their people, provide western goods for their people, etc.).
But, today, everything is reversed (the only ideology is from the West, and it’s Fascism, plenty of food in Russia, and plenty of Western-type goods in Russia, from China), and so I cannot think of a SINGLE REASON why Putin would want to take over the Immigrant/Greta/Groomer/Barren s-hole that still calls itself Europe. Why the hell would he want anything to do with that BASKET CASE? At least during the Cold War, we in the West had one decent, but relatively small, reason to try to take over the Soviet Union and that was their oil. I cannot think of a single reason for the Russians to want to want to take over Europe, where he knows he’d be hated (again) - makes much more sense to deal with China and the Third World for them.
I don’t seeing Russia coveting Western Europe either, but some expansionism could still be on the table for them based on resource related issues, perceived vulnerabilities, and general desire for dominance where feasible. They have an intense interest in the Arctic as you may know.