No. Russia started the conflict to force a reconciliation with Ukraine on neutral terms and to force NATO out of Ukraine. Putin has maintained all along that the two people will reconcile. If Putin wanted to destroy Ukraine, he would have made Kiev look like Gaza.

I remember in 2022 reading, watching and hearing in American media how US officials were 'scratching their heads" over the very "soft" way Putin was going into Ukraine. The Americans expected something like the "Shock and Awe" campaign the US did in Iraq. They were surprised that Putin was - as they said - "using kid gloves".

That is because Putin clearly wants there to be a Ukraine wen this thing is done. But he wants a Ukraine that will serve as a buffer between Russia and NATO, a neutral borderland like it always was, before the US started turning Ukraine into a "de facto NATO member" (as Reznikov said).