NATO nukes haven't moved closer to Russia in the last 30 years and there were no plans to do so.
Apparently, Moscow took very seriously the speech of President Vladimir Zelensky who said at the
Munich Conference on February 19, 2022 that Ukraine is ready to withdraw from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (the "Budapest Memorandum"). Zelensky also asked to announce the time frames for Ukraine's entry into NATO.
NATO expansion was quite clearly defensive and it would have remained so even if Ukraine joined NATO.
The purpose of creating NATO at the initial stage was to contain Soviet control in Europe, but even after the collapse of the USSR, the alliance
still continued to move east. In 1999, NATO organized the
bombing of Yugoslavia in violation of the UN Charter, so it is wrong to claim that this block pursues "clearly defensive" goals.
Despite Putin's delusions, the West wants a stable prosperous Russia to trade with, not a shithole to fight with.
However UK
opposes now to early peace talks between Ukraine and Russia.
If they wanted to attack it they'd have done it in mid-1990s.
It is obvious that no one wanted to mess with Russia because of its nuclear weapons, which left in this country after the collapse of the USSR.