You are looking at this from a moral viewpoint.

Clearly Aris has moral sentiments about the matter (who would not?), but he is presenting observable facts, such as who is sending men and materiel and who is not.

Putin would have less to worry about if the eastern European nations in NATO joined because they were forced to because then these countries would be weaker U.S. allies.

If they were forced to, that would imply a US more able and willing to force them, which cancels that out.

Putin clearly intends to exert all the pressure and take all the opportunities that he can to expand Russia's sphere of influence indefinitely, as did the former USSR. All else is tactics. As you said:

I think Putin wants to rebuild the Soviet Empire and is going to keep taking more territory until he encounters serious resistance