I am sorry, but you are just wrong. I took a deep dive and wrote a very detailed article explaining "The Case for Vladimir Putin" and I suggest you read and respond to that piece rather than this one:
https://medium.com/@euroyankeeblog/the-case-for-vladimir-putin-5d22e7275800
The fact is that Putin and the Russians had sought peaceful resolutions for DECADES prior to resorting to military action. I will tell you just one small anecdote:
In February 2008, Sergey Lavrov, Russia's FM, called the American Ambassador, William Burns, to his office and told him directly that if the US offered NATO membership to Ukraine or Georgia, Russia would have to intervene. In no uncertain terms, Lavrov explained that this was "the reddest of red lines" for the Russian government.
Burns sent a cable to Washington entitled "Nyet means Nyet" (No means No) and explaining that the West must not invite Ukraine or Georgia to join NATO, as it was something the Russians would not tolerate.
What happened?
Two months later, in April 2008, NATO met in Bucharest and George W. Bush declared that he wanted to "lay down a marker" and invite Ukraine and Georgia BOTH to join NATO.
The other NATO allies opposed this move because they knew it would force Russia's hand, but Bush prevailed and the "open door" invitation was extended.
The only obstacle to NATO membership for Ukraine was the fact that the country had a government and a President that wanted to pursue neutrality.
So what did the US do?
The US allied with Nazis and far right ultranationalists to overthrow the Ukrainian government and install a pro-Western regime hand-picked by Victoria "Big Mama" Nuland.
The coup regime took two steps immediately:
1) They declared their intention to join NATO and the EU "as soon as possible".
2) They declared the "rebels" in the Eastern provinces (Donbas) to be "terrorists" and launched an "Anti-Terror Operation" (ATO) to slaughter the Russian-Ukrainian civilians in Donetsk and Luhansk.
Putin knew he could not allow Crimea to become a NATO redoubt, he could not allow Russia's largest naval base in Sevastopol, home to the Black Sea Fleet, to become a NATO base.
Forget the fact that Crimea had been part of Russia since 1783. Forget the fact that 95% of the people there wanted to join Russia. Forget the fact that the coup regime had cut off water and other supplies to the peninsula. Crimea was an existential exigency.
Now a second anecdote: Putin tried to negotiate peace in the Donbas, to save the ethnic Russians living there, and to allow them to remain part of Ukraine but with a modicum of autonomy (like Catalunya in Spain). The Minsk Accords to implement this solution were signed in 2015.
The Ukrainians never implemented them.
We now know why: Merkel, Hollande and Poroshenko have all admitted that the West and Ukraine NEVER INTENDED to implement the peace plan. They have all admitted that Minsk was just a ploy to "buy time" to build up, arm and train the Ukrainian armed forces and prepare them for a war with Russia.
Read my piece linked above. You will see that Putin acted in good faith and he literally had no other option to save his country.
