These are Putin's own words about what he wants. I have copied the pertinent paragraphs from the Kremlin's English Translation:
Some time ago I had a discussion with the Patriarch about education, and he happened to say that even though education was indeed crucial, without proper upbringing we would not succeed at anything, because you can teach a person something, but the question is how they will use their knowledge. Science, education, upbringing, and health care are critically important, because without them demographic issues cannot be resolved, and so on. What about culture? If we do not rely on the basic values of the national cultures of the peoples of Russia, we will not consolidate our society. Without consolidation, everything will fall apart. And the fact that we have to sort of defend ourselves and fight for it is obvious.
We visited the exhibition dedicated to the 350th birth anniversary of Peter the Great. Almost nothing has changed. It is a remarkable thing. You come to this realisation, this understanding.
Peter the Great waged the Great Northern War for 21 years. On the face of it, he was at war with Sweden taking something away from it… He was not taking away anything, he was returning. This is how it was. The areas around Lake Ladoga, where St Petersburg was founded. When he founded the new capital, none of the European countries recognised this territory as part of Russia; everyone recognised it as part of Sweden. However, from time immemorial, the Slavs lived there along with the Finno-Ugric peoples, and this territory was under Russia’s control. The same is true of the western direction, Narva and his first campaigns. Why would he go there? He was returning and reinforcing, that is what he was doing.
Clearly, it fell to our lot to return and reinforce as well. And if we operate on the premise that these basic values constitute the basis of our existence, we will certainly succeed in achieving our goals."
There can be no ambiguity or misrepresentation by reading them through the lens of a media source either Russian or western.
Narva is in Estonia and was conquered from the Swedish Kingdom during the
Great Northern War of 1700 - 1721 between Russian and Sweden. Every man and his dog in Eastern Europe was involved in that war and even the Ottomans were helping out.
View attachment 49426
Source:
1024px-Russia_1533-1896.gif (1024×727) (wikimedia.org)
View attachment 49427
Source:
Growth of Russian Empire (studylib.net)
If you look at Putin's speech the operative word is
return and and he uses that frequently. He attempts to compare himself with Peter the Great by saying "...
The same is true of the western direction, Narva and his first campaigns. Why would he go there? He was returning and reinforcing, that is what he was doing. Clearly, it fell to our lot to return and reinforce as well." So Ukraine is just one step on his way to returning imperial Russia to her former glory and extent. The two maps above show the full extent of the Russian Empire including the Soviet times up to 1991. He won't stop until he has achieved his goal. It may not just be him either because it's been suggested that Nikolai Patrushev and Dmitry Medvedev are what one US media writer calls ultra hawks,
Russia Ukraine war: Vladimir Putin's threat to Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Baltic states in speech - NZ Herald, who I liken to the US neocons that were prevalent ten years ago and longer. If that is indeed the case then even when Putin falls off his perch (dies), his expansionist policy isn't going to die with him. This could be a recurring problem with Russia for the foreseeable future.