That's what I expected after he setup those two "republics" in the East. He virtually annexed them like Ukraine. He could have moved on with incrementalism, and referendums and chipped away at Zelenskyy's power base until the regime was changed. But he went the other way.
Yes. It was soo apparent that everyone else was going to abandon Ukraine (and everyone DID until they showed they had a spine and won the battle of Hostomel and the battle of Kyiv in March 2022).
He would have threatened, NATO would have folded, Zelensky would have lost an election or been recalled within a year and a Kremlin grandee would have won.
Instead he let hubris hit him — just like Dubya in 2003