I find it weird this idea that Putin was so scared of Ukraine joining NATO because he fears some NATO aggression. By now the most likely objective as far as I'm

I find it weird this idea that Putin was so scared of Ukraine joining NATO because he fears some NATO aggression. By now the most likely objective as far as I'm concerned is that conquering formerly soviet Ukraine has always been in his mind. I could be wrong as I'm not in his head, but to me this war wasn't avoidable by assuring Ukraine's neutrality as some pundits say, at best it was delaying the invasion to the time of his choosing, seemingly now.