I was feeling masochistic so I browsed for a while, and remembered that all pro-Ukraine folks seem to take this as a fact. I remember trying to look into this and not finding any evidence, and angry libs were not exactly forthcoming with sources themselves.
So besides the initial feint towards Kyiv (which AFAIK is circumstantial at best) was there ever any evidence pointing towards some Russian plan to eventually annex the entirety of Ukraine?
Lenin did had proukrainian bias though, even went as far as to tell the Donbas communists who wanted autonomy in 1918 to shut up and fall in line.
Lol really I thought it was just a made up nonsense from Putin 🤣