Putin begging to be invited / offering to western pro-european Ukraine to protect them from Poland instead of the usual direct NATO/Poland threatening was not in my bingo card...
I had talked to a pole in 2021. He suggested the russians stalling at the Dnipro and Poland taking the western parts of Ukraine to protect them from Russia. So that scenario doesn't seem so noncredible to me...
I hope that's a typo and you meant 2022. If that pole had that much insight into the invasion before it happened you need to get him on the line because he's a goddamn wizard and I have some unrelated questions.