There’s a lot of speculation about what Putin really wants from this.
I think he knows, or I hope he does, that a full-blown occupation of Ukraine would be too costly, and that merely getting the guarantee of no NATO troops in Ukraine, would at least satisfy people back home. From a political standpoint, any Russian leader that allowed NATO troops to be up on the Ukrainian/Russian border, would not be in power for very long.
Are you kidding? Almost immediately Putin brought up nukes. He’s nuts. That’s not the behavior of someone sane or even looking out for their own self-interest much less their country’s.