Its Putin's heavy handed, crude attempts(turning off the gas, Crimea and Donbas War) at corralling Ukraine that have backfired. Its why Putin just fired Vladislav Surkov (His advisor on Ukraine), who stage-managed Russia’s involvement in Ukraine.
https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/02/21/putin-fires-vladislav-surkov-puppet-master-russia-ukraine-rebels/
Do you really believe Surkov was fired over Ukraine? Ukrainian affairs were maybe a 1% of his duties.