I doubt he wanted to invade Ukraine (or he would have done so far sooner), but he was out of options if he wanted to prevent a massacre in Donbas, as the Neocons wouldn’t return his phone calls...so here we are - 20% of Ukraine already gone and no sign of the Neocons wanting to end Russia’s further expansion there.
The most pressing question for the Ukrainians is why their government is sacrificing them. The majority comes to the realization that their statehood is a false concept.
Those watching Nato and Russia/Ukraine’s activities over these past few years, and the consistant stalled/failed negotiations, knew it was heading for Putin to pre-empt what Nato/Us/Ukraine were gearing up for.....they left their footprints everywhere.
Putins buildup on the border was justified but media, as usual, framed the story that Russia was being aggressive rather than preparing to intercept the plans Nato/Ukraine and US were obviously working at to bring about.
Out of options to prevent a massacre in the Donbas? From Zelenskyy??? What evidence have you that there was any massacre in the works? Essentially, the Donbas had become a frozen state... that’s not a tolerable condition... but neither is it a crisis. Zelenskyy beat Poroshenko by an astounding margin (77-23) because UKRAINIANS were astonished at Poroshenko’s villainy. But Zelenskyy also beat the pro-Russian candidate in all of the Russian-majority states besides Luhansk and Donetsk, including Zaporizhzhia, Kherson and Kharkiv. The major candidates — and I’m using that term loosely — more friendly to Russia than Zelenskyy were Boyko, who got only 11%, and his party’s splinter candidate, Vilkul, who got 4%.