Damn right he should have! ...There was no way to win that situation without conflict, what with, the western takedown of the Ukrainian government disguised as a popularist movement and the lying fake news backing it. Russia should have taken in the breakaway parts of Ukraine right away.
Western Ukrainians under the influence of the USA and Naziism effectively declared war on their Russian brothers in eastern Ukraine, which is traditionally Russia proper. Had Putin gone in to protect these Russians it could have avoided the loss of many lives.
But you won't read about that in your lying CFR controlled mainstream media in the cucked West.
https://russia-insider.com/en/putin-should-have-taken-all-pro-russian-ukraine-2014-when-he-had-chance/ri22827?ct=t(Russia_Insider_Daily_Headlines11_21_2014)&mc_cid=13ad6665a0&mc_eid=1edb99d86c