It's both horrible. But Putin is now fighting a was on land with predominantly ethnic-Russians on it. He's doing it now so he has all Russians consolidated, and never has to fight again "over Russians".

This "Ukraine is only the first step." narrative is no-were seen IRL. All superpowers use their force to advance their interests. Hence Venezuela got toppled, Iran is attacked, Taiwan has independence issues, Cuba could not build missile silos on their "sovereign land".

I believe the west helped Ukraine to get in this war in the first place.