The NATO talk is a red herring. It was never happening. Ukraine has too many Russian connections and corruption to ever be in NATO. What this is really about is Ukrainian membership in the EU. Putinists do not want Ukraine in the EU above all because that would be the beginning of the end of their kleptocratic rule in Russia.
True.
“What this is really about is Ukrainian membership in the EU.”
It's not even that. Ukraine is too poor and too large to join the EU. EUnuchs like small and poor but fast growing economies so they can initially offer some “funds” and then parasite on them for generations.
Simply, for Kremlin dudes, anything else than Ukraine fully under Russian control, is provocative, Russophobic, nazi and the effect of the US industrial military complex conspiracy. There's no room for compromise so the whole thing will be likely going on for decades slowly bringing down both countries.