A neutral cost-benefit analysis of invading Ukraine would clearly lean towards one conclusion: "no"
-Ukraine is dirt poor with no significant natural resources, so economically there's not much advantage. Ukraine has access to the Black Sea, but so does Russia.
-Ukraine borders several NATO countries, but so does Russia. So there's a minor strategic advantage to increase the buffer region, but not really.
-By invading Ukraine, Putin will make Russia an international pariah for generations to come, in both trade and international affairs (olympics, UN, international organizations, NGOs, etc).
The only motivation that makes sense is he's a desperate, aging leader who wants to gin up nationalist sentiment to consolidate more power internally, but he's already the undisputed leader/dictator of Russia so that doesn't make sense to me either.
Putin is not a stupid man, so there must be a good reason for doing this. Maybe he know something we don't?
