And I don't think there's any evidence that Putin is an insane megalomaniac to that extent

See, this is where you are completely out of touch of reality.

There's no evidence that Putin ISNT another wannabe Hitler. He's a dictator that can't be removed because he kills off all his political rivals. He's a liar who will pretend his invasion force is just running training exercises. He's threatened to use nukes, even though it's basically just mutually assured destruction.

And sure, Putin now wants "peace" because this war is insanely costly for him, everyone expected Ukraine to fall within days. Putin was supposed to conquer Ukraine before NATO could act. So Putin has no choice but peace if he wants to keep the 1/5 he's already conquered. Pleace, that is, until he starts running training exercises along the border again.

The real question of the day for y'all is, why is Russia conquering neighboring countries instead of making alliances? Why didn't Russia and Ukraine start a Eastern European Treaty Organization? A treaty would have massively reinforced Russia against NATO without gutting it's military. I don't see any benefit for Russia turning it into a way except for Putin being an expansion thirsty megalomaniac.