Things are really kicking off there. Seems to me that Putin wants to essentially hollow Ukraine out and pull the strings on a pro-Kremlin puppet, while driving out would-be resistance and seizing territory and natural resources.
I refrained from any tongue-in-cheek "World War III Vigil" labels here, because it's not funny and, to this historian's eyes, not at all out of the question (not necessarily likely, but also not off the table).