Vladimir Putin is a tyrant, ill and more dangerous to to peace in Europe than anyone since Adolf Hitler. He is not sabre rattling. He is going to drop a radioactive charge of some kind on the lands in Ukraine he is losing and may even explode several across the entire country. He won’t mind killing millions as long as the country is either his or a wasteland against invasions that will never come.
The west is is enemy and always has been. But they were never going to launch a war against Russia. That is his limited imagination. The modern war is spying, hacking and changing treaties. We tend to go to war with small people we can easily defeat.
But he is going to drop atomic weapons unless he is stopped because in his world view Russia is being systematically broken down by her enemies. He loss of power is not her fault but NATO’s.