No, that's not right. Europe and the US constantly talked about Ukraine joining NATO after the coup so NATO expansion, into Ukraine, is and was a huge issue for Russia. They will not tolerate it.
In 2014, Putin said he would never have tolerated NATO in Crimea so he felt they had designs on that territory. I believe he's right because also in 2014, I saw one of those bid things on the .gov site that puts contracts up to bid on and it was for the remodeling of a school in Sevastopol for the US Navy! The date of the contract specs was prior to the coup so even before the govt was overthrown, that was in planning stages. When Russia moved in and secured the peninsula and they had the referendum, the bid was taken down.
You nailed it. In this interview, Putin came as close as he'll ever come to saying on camera why Russia has taken the actions it has taken. It's not complicated when you think about it. Just reverse the situation. Suppose that Russia staged a political coup in Mexico and used CIA color-revolution techniques like Maidan to put Mexico under the control of a Russophile regime. What would the US response be? Well, DC would probably just flip out and start nuking the entire planet, because they're a bunch of maniacs with their fingers on the global-annihilation button, with an ego the size of the Andromeda Galaxy, and the sheer insult of Russia doing that would send them into orbit. But assuming that DC was actually rational (hahahahaha!!), the simplest and most direct response would be to directly undo whatever Russia had done, using essentially the same methods that Russia had used, but with the insuperable advantage of territorial proximity. Since Mexico is our backyard, we could easily and persistently infiltrate the Mexican political establishment using the broad palette of intelligence-agency techniques. Then, when the time was right, we could pull the carpet out from under the alien regime installed by Russia. People keep talking about the Donbass as though it's a "territorial expansion", which is absurd. Nothing has actually changed except that Kiev can't bark orders at the Donbass, and Russia is presumably handling their border security, etc. No, the Donbass is the other jaw of a pincer movement, the other jaw being invisible and, thus, there really isn't evidence of it but I'm sure CIA/NATO feel its effects constantly. If Moscow were to simply hand out bribes in Kiev, like the old days, this would have been ineffective since the Maidan coup gave CIA/NATO hard cover against Russian influence in Kiev. Thus, they had to force Kiev to go in two directions simultaneously, both in Kiev and in Donbass. If Kiev turns its full attention on driving Moscow's soft influence out of Kiev, Their eastern border will move even further west, to the Dnipr. If they turn all their attention on the Donbass, Kiev itself will be seized by a political coup. By forcing Kiev (that is, CIA/NATO) constantly on this dilemma, Moscow has systematically undone the Maidan and what Putin really means by "de-nazification" is making sure that nothing like this can ever happen again. Moscow obviously prefers to achieve this goal in a multi-lateral fashion, sitting down to negotiate a diplomatic agreement. But that is too tall an order for the CIA/NATO ego -- they can't accept that they are being outplayed like novices playing chess against a grandmaster. In 2014, they got the drop on Moscow and delivered a near-knockout blow from ambush. Hyped on the ego-boost from that "success", they've continued to press into the insanity of their failed strategy despite a growing cascade of losses and ever-mounting geopolitical costs. Yes, they "sanctioned" Russia -- the geopolitical equivalent of calling your opponent an ugly goose -- but Russia can deliver insults, too. I'm sure they're served nice and cold, as all revenge ought to be.
CIA's perennial mistake has been its willingness to cooperate with evil people "for good purposes". You don't cooperate with the Nazis for any purpose, no matter how noble. And when you join forces with the Nazis, expect to reap the whirlwind. Which CIA/NATO have been doing for years now, and only continue falling down the stairs harder and faster...