Many believe that Putin was poked,prodded,provoked,goaded into the "invasion" by NATO expansionist policy,murmurings of Ukraine joining NATO and EU not to mention the happenings in 2014 the thousands killed in the Donbas region following it, the peoples of that region asking for protection from Kiev bombings and subsequently voting to become part of Russia.
Putin should have just let those people suffer at the hands of Kiev and allow NATO to advance right up to his western border ?