I think he Putin sees himself liberating Ukraine of its western financed and backed leadership, given the previous Russian backed government was taken down by them. There are also many Russians living in Ukraine and vice-versa. Maybe he thought it would be an easy fight and that the west wouldn't bat much of an eye. Don't get me wrong; I don't like (m)any western leaders either who seem to all push degeneracy in various ways but I don't want to see war either. Putin has attended Davos and the World Economic Forum just as western leaders have; perhaps it was all backroom planned and we're just viewing a show of destruction meant to drag us into a world war campaign to "liberate" Ukraine, yet we don't even have peace nor liberty in most places in the west anymore given events of the previous 2 years.