As recently as 1989, not only Ukraine, but all of Eastern Europe was aligned with Russia/USSR. Strangely, Western Europe was not drafting grandmothers at that time.
I don't see any reason to think that Putin wants to do more than control his near abroad. He doesn't have an expansionist ideology. He likes being rich and controlling his periphery and sticking a thumb in the eye of the West, but if he e.g. invaded and conquered Paris, where would he exile his oligarchs when he needs them to take a time out for a while? He needs the West as a pressure valve. As long as he can still have you murdered at your hotel in DC (Mikhail Lesin), he can keep you in line without needing to have ships in the Potomac.