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hippyjoe1955 I do indedd try to understand Putins motives. I don't doubt his patriotism as he at least would see it but whatever good he may have done for his country he is also a ruthless tyrant.
Backgrouind: his parents survived the dreadful conditions in what was then called Stalingrad during the Nazi siege, and this may well have coloured his desire to be a good Communist USSR citizen to the extent of joining the KGB.
He even walked into its local office and asked how to work for it, when a teenager. The officer was apparently rather startled by this but advised him to become highly educated including in a foreign language. He became fluent in German and after graduating, eventually became a KGB Liason Officer to the Stasi (East Germany's secret police.).
He manupulated himself to power, helped by the so-called "oligarchs" and in turn he helped them, at least until they'd served his purpose.
Since then he has steadily clamped down on his own country, stamping out all dissent as far as he can, helped by the FSB. Even calling his "special military operation" what it really is - a war, let alone war by invasion - or questioning it, will land you in prison. Escaping abroad might not save you either. Think of Sergei Skripal and his daughter, poisoned in their homes in Salisbury by two Russians the British authorities soon identified by names and as FSB agents, but unfortunately not soon enough to arrest them.
As for "Christian" I do not regard it all Christian to support mysongyny, domestic abuse and homophobia, as Putin's pal Patriach Kiril would preach. This is the man who once called the invasion, "holy". That hard Orthodox line is, oddly, attracting followers in the USA, a country noted for hosting more extremist churches and cults than anywhere else while promoting democracy; and their attitudes to women and reproduction is neither modern nor healthy. More Gilead than democracy.
It's also hypocritical unless Valdimir Putin genuinely has converted from the hard atheism preached by the USSR regime.
It is not ever so surprising if Putin resents his country losing its former USSR empire as he is thought, since he was a fairly high-ranking cog in that machine.
Vladimir Putin does have a few European admirers, apart from his ally, President Alexander Lukashenko, whose grip on Belarus is if anyhting more despotic than Putin's on Russia. These include Viktor Orban, who was elected fairly and properly but is becoming ever more authoritarian despite his nation being a member of the EU, which seeks to prevent such occurrences. And possibly, President Erdogan of Turkey, also becoming more and more dictarorial and notorisouly one of the world's worst countries at jailin journalists. Tyrants are essentialy cowards terrified of being questioned, investigated, argued against - but at presidential level have the means to protect themselves.
(We are seeing similar in Israel, with its government being driven by hard-line factions with a desire to destroy Palestine as strong as the Hamas' drive to destroy Israel. The difference is that Israel is supposed to be a properly-constituted democratic nation; Hamas makes no pretence at being basically any more than an anti-libertarian gang driven by power.)
Putin is not only attacking Ukraine. His men are also attacking Europe by physical sabotage, and the USA and Europe by Internet interference.
After the fall of the USSR, Russia was briefly friendly and constructive, develping trade and cultural links with European and many other countries; but Vladimir Putin is reversing that.... for his own ends.
He is a very dangerous man with no respect for anyone but Russia and fellow-dictators like those of China and North Korea.
