utin is a mentally ill, unpredictable cruel despot
Looking at official and unofficial information (and ignoring as much russian disinfo like RT as possible) a kind of picture suggests itself...
putain is an aging dictator, probably not in good physical health and certainly not in good mental health due to extreme isolation experienced during the covid pandemic...
then like many aged people he begins thinking in terms of legacy and wants to be remembered, here things get a bit more hazy, possibilities include he wants to be remembered as
-the leader who brought 'the russian lands' together (with no concern whether or not the people living there want to be brought together by him)
-the leader who made russia safe (against bogeymen, all the evidence suggests that those responsible for russian national security were never saw NATO as any kind of special threat) or maybe he's thinking in terms of Zeihan's theory of russia wanting to plug up physical access points to prevent future invasion)
-the leader who ensured longterm prosperity by gaining access to natural resources in Ukraine (under-utilized due to post-soviet corruption).
Whatever the reason, against all expert advice he decided to invade Ukraine, and
-exposed the pathetic state of the russian military, unable to carry out any kind of coordinated action and using coldwar era equipment....
-alarmed a couple of countries enought for them to want to join NATO (strengthening an alliance that had been frayed and weakened)
-gotten unacceptable amounts of young russian men killed (and it's not like they can spare them)
-exposed the russian military as war criminals and plain thieves (everywhere they've gone they've left mass graves and looted houses behind)
Unhappy with the execution of the invasion he took control of decisions by himself and only exacerbated all of the above and then made things worse by announcing mobilization... (two months after what he'd been told the deadline should have been)
and in addition to the above
-he's driven hundreds of thousands of russian men out of the country (who tend toward those with accumulated capital and/or marketable skills)
-largely eliminated the nuclear deterrent though the suspicion that russian nukes are inoperable (or simply not under his control)
There's more, but the upshot of all of this is simple...
A dictatorship with a leader who can't be peacefully removed from office is a terrible way to run a country in the 21st century....