The US declassified exchanges between US President Bush and Putin from 2008 in which Putin already called Ukraine an „artificial“ state, clearly denying its right for existence.
This is years before the war started and should remind us once again that Putin always wanted to take Ukraine. It also says that this war will never end with Putin in the Kremlin. It will go on until he is removed, permanently, and Russia fully dislodged. Everything else is just noise.