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The whole situation is somewhat bizarre.
We hear from the government that Russia has a proxy lined up to take over in Ukraine, namely Yevhen Murayev.
I am not sure under what sort of delusion Putin thinks that he could instal any sort of a puppet ruler in Ukraine. They tried that in 2004 and it led to the Orange revolution then, one which, unlike in 2014, Ukraine was not really ready. It simply would not work now, even less.
Similarly, 117,000 troops sounds a lot, but it is nowhere near enough to mount a serious invasion of a country the size of Ukraine with its own sizeable and very well trained, and prepared, armed forces. Added to the fact that such an obvious act of aggression would be massively unpopular with Russians, even before the thousands of body bags started returning.
Someone suggested that Putin plays well at poker, but less well at chess, and you can see why that observatuion was made: