First, thanks for that article.

Interestingly, in 1984 one of the necessary conditions for maintaining the dystopian state is a permanent state of (relatively low-level) war. My guess is that, with the old 'Cold War' gone, Putin hoped to provoke the West enough to have Russia always be on a war footing, but never actually being at war with the West--though perhaps with small, contained skirmishes here and there outside Europe. Had he been able to re-take Ukraine quickly, he could have had just that, with huge domestic political support--and a materially stronger Russia, to boot.