Putin's whole idea was to stop the war that the US/Ukraine started in 2014. The results are that basically it worked, even though it cost way more lives than Putin wanted to happen.

Putin's next step will be a formal WW3 if the US doesn't stop pushing for war. Such might destroy a good portion of the world, but Putin almost has no other choice. Well he DOES have another choice. Let Russia be conquers by the US, a thing that the US has been trying to do ever since, and with, the Bolshevik Revolution back in 1917.