For Russia, the demands to keep the Ukraine as buffer had been there since 1991. They didn't start in 2022.

The situation in Donbass deteriorated ever since the color revolution, not in 2022.

That Putin is iron fisted is known from his arrival to power, or very little afterwards. Not from 2022.

How do you contain that, nuclear or not?

Leave aside China or the US. Countries without nukes such as Saudi Arabia and Cuba routinely strong-arm their way into obtaining their international goals.

So, you must not elect president someone with no political experience (Zelensky). Nor give in a silver platter a casus belli to Putin (the two Donbass republics). The casus belli may be exaggerated or used to pursue further or unrelated goals but it always played into Putin's own domestic and international ambitions.






(In that very narrow sense the H comparison is apt. H announced his goals from very early. Foreign rivals gave him rope to work with. Then acted surprised when he did what he always told them he would do.)