@thor Tbf, many people think he assumed his military was in a way better state than it really was. Which is overall a reasonable assumption.
Also Ukraine is a state with no real military alliances so any conflict would be between Russia and Ukraine.
Putin probably also thought it would go roughly like the annexation of Crimea where Russia had barely any resistance from Ukraine.
Soo, when you think about this scenario, and putins situation attacking Ukraine probably was a totally feasible thing.
Morally totally wrong and inhumane, but doable.
Attacking the NATO on the other hand was even questionable back when he thought russias military would be in a good state.
Now as he knows how bad russias military situation really is any conflict with the NATO is totally of the table.
I can imagine it must have been a really embarrassing situation for putin when he, the leader of "big & strong russia" needs to beg in north korea, which is barely able to feed its population, for decade old ammunition.
Not feeling bad for him, don't get me wrong.
Just wanna say that it's pretty sure that he knows how bad the situation is now.