Not sure why the propaganda to make it seem like this is something new.
Ask the CIA, they control the news narrative in our country.
It seems like either the West (or the governments that is) are spewing falsehoods (which the regularly do) to mislead the public or they are lying to themselves. Putin didn’t get where he is by being emotionally unstable or stupid.
There had to have been some sort of threat to Russia in Ukraine for him to take such a large risk.
It is a dangerous thing to minimize or underestimate the other side. The consequences are even worse now than in the first two world wars.