Russia has no interest in taking Kiev or all of Ukraine.

Russia wants to take the Russian part of Ukraine as a buffer zone.

Russia invasion of Ukraine was defensive. Putin doesn’t want NATO bases in Ukraine.

The west created this conflict by trying to extend NATO membership to Ukraine.

NATO is an enemy of Russia. Ukraine is an enemy of Russia. NATO engagement with Ukraine is a provocation for war. George Kennan and Paul Nitze predicted this in 1996 when NATO enlargement was starting.

I chided a college classmate who wrote her thesis on supporting NATO engagement in 1997. I told her you are reading the wrong people and don’t understand how Russia views this as a provocation. Poking the Russian bear.

Listen to John Mearsheimer lecture on Ukraine in 2014 which still relevant.