They (Putin's Russia) didn't want this war and were hopeful that...

They (Putin's Russia) didn't want this war and were hopeful that the west wasn't serious about war also.

That's quite a bizarre thing to say in the circumstances considering it was Putin who upped the ante and unleashed his aggressive War on Ukraine.
I think he thought it would be another cakewalk a la Crimea in 2014 but he was wrong....very wrong obviously.
The biggest mistake the so called "West" and other countries made was not taking a firmer stand on him in 2014 in my opinion...you give a Tyrant an inch and this is what they can do.
Wars have a bad habit of spreading and intensifying and Putin should have thought about that before he made that fateful decision of his in 2021/2022.