Putin ruled out war against Ukraine on many occasions, both before and after the invasions of Crimea and Eastern Ukraine.
Well...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prelude_to_the_Russian_invasion_of_Ukraine
In December 2021, Russia advanced two draft treaties that contained requests for what it referred to as "security guarantees", including a legally binding promise that Ukraine would not join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and a reduction in NATO troops and materiel stationed in Eastern Europe, threatening unspecified military response if those demands were not met in full. NATO rejected these requests, and the United States warned Russia of "swift and severe" economic sanctions should it further invade Ukraine.
Are you denying this happened?
Personally I thought these demands weren't too outrageous. With the outright rejection it was clear to me that an invasion was very likely.
Weather it all "doesn't seem smart" or "is stupid" doesn't really matter. What is pissing me off though is that the US is doing things like that all the time except the "intellectuals" always listen to their reasons and repeat them. But if others act in the exact same way it's just amoral. What bothers me isn't so much the bigotry (one set of rules for us, another for the others), but that this way any attempt at peaceful diplomatic resolution is prevented. This makes it war propaganda. You want to negotiate with terrorists?
Really our western civilization hasn't learned a damn thing.