I disagree. The invasion of Ukraine was not a surprise. Even Trump was impeached for witholding aid to Ukraine because this threat has been around for a while now. I still remember when their previous president or PM sold them out to Russia by selling of a base or something and they had fist fights in their parliament because of it. The US and pals tell everyone what to do in their country, including putin (see Chechnya), they invade Iraq for Oil but act like they are better than when russia invaded Georgia. Russia's economy depends on oil sales to neighbors and to Putin, the only thing preventing the west from twisting their arms is nukes, the US has been handing out THAAD and hosting nukes in NATO states, Ukraine and Georgia have the desire to join NATO. This isn't that surprising. Putin wants a buffer of former soviet states . Of course, I personally disagree with his views but from his perspective invading Ukraine was in the best interest of his rule and preserving Russia's sovreignity.

The whole WW3 scare is silly. Putin isn't interested in a 1000 year reich. He's a KGB spy who spent his life resisting western influence, he is doing what he does best. Now that they have him feel cornerned though, things will get very bad. He may invade all the former soviet sattelites and the west should stay out of it unless WW3 is on the calendar.