Here's a thought.

Is it possible that after TFG’s reign, along with his willingness to possibly hand over security secrets to the Russians, that Putin just wanted to create a scenario that would reveal how we and our allies would react in such a situation - our submarine and warship deployments, air brigades, troop assembly and deployments, armament movements, logistics, etc.

I stated earlier that I had doubts that Putin would actually invade Ukraine, as he has far more to lose than to gain. He now has better knowledge of strategies of his adversaries and the method by which we respond.

In the guise of faking a conflict he has exposed how his adversaries will counter. And the chess game moves on.