Who said it? A lot of China, for a start. I believe it was literally said on Chinese (govt controlled) media, that it'd be over in 2 days.
"One of Chinese media"? Its pretty specific. Ok. There was a chance that right after Russian recognition of DPR and LPR Ukrainian government would accept other Russian demands and change their position of NATO membership. But Ukraine (and its western masters) failed to accept reality and do what was said them to do.
And no. Previous time, even after military defeat of Germany, Ukrainian nazionalists have been terrorising civilian population of Western Ukraine until 70s (even with active Soviet counter-terroristic operations there). Even with the best modern technologies counter-guerilla war in West Ukraine can't be lesser than five years.
The problem with Putin is that he's a cnut who only cares about himself and his own ego.
No. Your problem with Putin (or with other leaders) is your racism. You don't see Russians (Arabs, Persians, Serbs, whoever else) as human beings more or less equal to you, with their own interests and goals. In your twisted mindset we are "Orcs" from LOTR or "zombies" from the Game of Thrones setting . Every single Orc is a subhuman creature - weak, stupid, coward and so on, and the only thing that unite them and allow them to act. Or every zombie us just a corpse, moved exclusively by the evil magic of King of Night. The only reason why the Russians do one thing or another is the evil will and dark magic of the Dark Lord Putin.
It's your basic mistake and without correcting it, there is no way to discuss further.
Putin wants to bring the USSR back together.
Nobody wants to bring the USSR (as it was) together (lesser of all - Russians). But almost everybody wants safety and wealth. The age of strife - is the age of civil wars, the age when the gangs are ruling , when human life worth nothing and when basic safety or simple food is a luxury, aviable only to privileged minorities. The fall of the Soviet Union was the largest geopolitical catastrophe of XX century, caused a lot of death and destruction.
There was an idea, that the cooperation between the USA and Russia can build the reunited world - world of wealth and safety. But, in 1994 (with US support of Chechen terrorists ) it became clear, that the USA don't want to be cooperative. In 1999, with American illegal and unprovoked aggresion against Serbia - ok, then Russia changed the course. In 2003, by illegal invasion in Iraq, the USA officially declared the end of post-WWII world order. In 2007 the last Russian attempt to call the West to return to sanity failed.
Since December 31st 1999 when Putin took over Russia, Russia has had conflict with Chechnya, Georgia, the Ukraine, plus Syria and some African conflicts where Russia hires out its troops.
Why?
First of all, you should ask another question. Why Putin was choosen and then elected (and then many times re-elected)? And the answer is simple. Putin was choosen and elected to fight the West and defend Russia.
Well, because the countries of the former USSR that have pushed away from Russia are the Ukraine, Georgia and Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, the latter three Putin doesn't dare go to war with because NATO and the EU would pound Russia to dust.
So he's gone after the Ukraine and Georgia. He's also threatened Moldova with the Transnistria situation, literally annexing a part of their country.
Actually, the civil war in Moldova started in 1992, and Transnistria was defended from Moldovian (and Rumanian) nationalists by both of Ukraine and Russia. Half of Transnistrians are ethnic Ukrainians, after all and Russia didn't have a land corridor to Transnistria.
Putin spent a lot of effort since 1999 destabilizing the Ukraine and trying to put his own man into the presidency and controlling their parliament.
Man, Russia have been working with "Ukraine" in different ways always, like, since IX century. And Eltsin have been working with them, too. And Ukrainian pro-Western militants from UNA-UNSO have been fighting against Russian Federal Forces in Chechnya (even in first campaign).
The problem is he got angry that the Ukraine was moving more to the west, so he invaded, it's that simple.
Ukraine can't move west, its a territory. The problem is that the West was expanding to East, and during this expanding- it have been discriminating, abusing and killing Russians. And, therefore, this expansion should be stopped.