He didn't start it, the U.S. did by turning a nation that had been fairly neutral to Russia into a hostile one:
As Russia actually do launch an invasion or “special operation” in Ukraine, we thought now was a good time to recap on how we got here. The historical, political and ethnic divisions in…
off-guardian.org
The author explains manipulative U.S. post-war foreign policy to European MPs, explodes myths about Ukraine and urges an independent European foreign policy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjcMoDFU1xg&ab_channel=MichaelvonderSchulenburg This is an edited transcript of Professor Jeffrey Sachs’
consortiumnews.com
What Putin -did- try to do is make it neutral once more. Alas, his 8 years of trying to stop Ukraine's civil war didn't work out and he finally decided the only way to deal with the threat that Ukraine had become was to start his military operation. Articles on that too, this one I think is the best:
Jacques Baud, a NATO expert, denounces western coverage of the Ukraine invasion.
scheerpost.com