Sure I understand it's not black and white, but NATO is already the stronger party, by far, so what does it REALLY matter if they put up some more bases nearby?
What Putin does not want is Ukraine as a democratic state where a president loses an election and steps down peacefully. Ukraine is "small Russia" and Russians could start asking questions.
And every one already knows that there are democratic countries, it's not like Russians would suddenly stage a coup because Ukraine has a fair election. Which they won't have any time soon, by the way. Ukraine is more corrupt than Russia.
Putin has never had fair elections in the first place. He was appointed first and ran as an incumbent already. He never held a single public debate with any of his opponents. He never faced a single opposition TV channel. Shutting down TV was his first term agenda. He never faced a single popular opposition leader competition, because they've been always excluded from elections in the first place.
And no, Ukraine rates better than Russia in corruption. Not saying Ukraine is a true democracy, which means the power was passed to opposition multiple times.
Even this brutal war on a brother nation has popular support according to surveys https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/03/08/russia-publi.... Presumably Putin is not less popular than this.
And if you don't trust secondhand reports of a phone call between him & Macron, there is also a public statement today to similar effect, though couched in "look what you might make me do" rhetoric: https://news.yahoo.com/putin-warns-ukraine-might-lose-160156...
The statehood threat actually strengthens my belief, it sounds like he will only annihilate Ukraine unless they give up soon. If he was planning to do that anyway, the threat makes less sense.
But of course I'm just guessing.