If you look at Putin's Behavior up to February 24 2022, and even immediately after the invasion, he is clearly very reticent to get into the war to begin with and very interested in ending the war as quickly as possible. The idea that Putin is a highly aggressive individual who was bent on conquering Ukraine and turning it into part of a greater Russia is not a serious argument. In fact I would make the argument that he was too reticent to engage the West militarily along the road to February 24th 2022. He was doing everything he could to avoid a war. He did not want a war. He understood that this would not be good for Russia. He was not interested in conquering Ukraine. There's not a scintilla of evidence to show that he was interested in conquering Ukraine.
--- John Mearsheimer
