Yes and no.
Putin was holding out hope that politics in the U.S. would be cleaned up. That would have put a massive brake on the funding of Ukraine and its alliances with American politicians.
Russia reclaimed its prior territory from Ukraine for two major reasons. First and foremost was the expansion of NATO. This was not allowable because of the second factor.
Ukrainian militants were assaulting Russian communities in Ukraine for decades. This was being handled as militia on militia, but the inclusion into NATO would have been a prelude to a declaration of war on Russia as the Ukrainian conflict zone would suddenly become hyper-focused in the media and Russia blamed for supporting partisan militias against NATO.
The only option available to Russia was to pre-empt NATO in this regard.
Which they did.
If Trump was the CiC over the U.S. military, it is rather unlikely NATO would have tried this - and arguably, we may have been on our way out of NATO, which would have destroyed the whole sham.
In the long run, Russia is a major resource supplier in an unassailable location. They have all essential industrial resources in spades and geographic defenses only rivaled by oceans. Europe lacks key industrial resources and is mostly dependent upon imports, and will always be. Energy independence may be possible, but industrial independence is a pipe dream. They are to Russia what China is to the U.S.
They can fight against it, and some no doubt will fight with all the savagery of demons against the divine - but it is inevitable that Russia will dominate the geopolitical and economic landscape of Europe.
The question is whether or not said demons are allowed access to the means and weapons of nations as a whole… and so far, that answer is yes.
We should be using our influence and power to secure a place for Europe's nations within that new economic order and leveraging the natural aversion to the start of conflict to see to our interests.
By fomenting this type of war, we are more or less forcing Russia to call everyone's bluff and say "If you want to crush europe back to the medieval period, that just makes it impossible for any other terms but ours to be enforced. You chose this, not us."