Seriously, why is Vladimir Putin is trying to claim Ukraine back into the Russian canon?

In 1992 Ukraine became an independent nation after the fall of the Berlin wall. They were fed up with the oppressive and controlling regime that was present and perpetrated by the Kremlin. Ukraine flourished and became a vibrant free economy without communist interference. There had been conflict in the Donbas region from the early days, then in 2014 Putin annexed The Crimea and bought it back into the Russian empire. Now in 2022, Putin has decided that Ukraine can’t cope on its own and must be bought back under the Russian wing. President Zelensky has proved time and again that his country is not interested in being part of Russia again, and Putin’s nose has been put out of joint because the Ukrainians didn’t just roll over and let him over run the whole country and install a puppet government. So what is Putin’s end game?

Clearly his megalomaniacal ways haven’t ended in total success and most of Ukraine is still in Zelensky’s hands, despite millions of fleeing refugees and devastated cities. Who can blame them for wanting to stay as they are and not be part of Putin’s totalitarian state? So what is his end game? He’s clearly not going to win the country back, but I suppose he wants the natural resources that Ukraine has. Or he is such a dyed-in-the-wool communist that he can’t bear anyone else being better off than him. I just don’t get it, he’s against practically the rest of the world, except of course those like minded, such as North Korea and China, and millions of dollars worth of equipment is pouring into Ukraine and helping their cause. Does Putin think they are all going to just pack up and go home? Will he actually achieve anything at all, besides displacing millions of Ukrainians and destroying the country and cities which will require years of rebuilding and restoration? Probably not, he’s seriously delusional if he thinks he’s going to win back Ukraine, but if he ups his game and starts using tactical nukes, all hell will be let loose and he won’t win that either. Nobody wins, and the upshot could be wideworld destruction, but not total destruction of the world because that would be impossible. I despair because no one knows how this will end, but I fear it will end badly. Someone needs to take Putin out.