So I'm trying to follow your reasoning here :

Putin was unjustly getting a bad press about his completely imaginary intentions to invade Ukraine.

He reacts by demanding a complete redo of European defense arrangements, which none of the other actors concerned are interested in entertaining.

This vexes him even further.

Meanwhile, lots of people are getting excited because of the US propaganda campaign, and (controlled/uncontrolled) elements of the Ukraine forces along the Donbass front line have fired some shells.

Also, (and I have no sources for this) Putin alleges that there is ethnic cleansing going on (how many thousands of ethnic Russian Ukranians have fled to Russia in recent months? Or are they held in secret prison camps?

After such unbearable provocation, Putin goes on an unhinged rant about how Ukraine has always been a natural part of Russia, and... invades Ukraine.

And this is a victory for Uncle Joe?

_{It is rightly acknowledged that people of faith have no monopoly of virtue - Queen Elizabeth II}

I was intrigued by your remark that gas storage didn't fit with the European energy market, and I don't understand why European buyers of Russian gas prefer to pay spot prices rather than negotiate long-term contracts.

So I'm keen.

_{It is rightly acknowledged that people of faith have no monopoly of virtue - Queen Elizabeth II}

No one political group invented international, "global," trade in raw, intermediate, and finished goods yesterday or when the USSR devolved into its several sovereign nation-states' governments and treasuries. Neither was the allocation of resources for subsistence, surplus (stored value), nor profit by one  extracted from another's instant want and poverty. Two sides of every trade is the ancient union.

At this juncture in world history, in some regions, 'consumer' segments, households, accustomed to instant gratification, the 500 ticker symbols, the face of any one business executive, or any one politician masks the fallacy of market equilibrium and ineluctable free trade, paradoxically, enforced by intra-government selections of "trading partners" among nations and corporate trusts among domestic industries.

At this juncture, while some people fret over the significance of any one politician's motive for apparently upsetting "international norms" of free trade, sovereign states, and political divisions said to constitute a "rational system of government", let us recall that the opening act of Europe's energy "crisis" began in Washington DC to benefit "US-based" oil and gas producers and international investors. U.S. Senators Introduce Expedited LNG for American Allies Act, 2012
archived Mr Juncker Goes to Washington, EU-U.S. Joint Statement: Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) imports from the U.S.

reference
Liang et al., "The role of natural gas as a primary fuel in the near future, including comparisons of acquisition, transmission and waste handling costs of as with competitive alternatives" (2012)

EIA | Drilling natural gas wells and producing natural gas; wet Natural gas processed for sale and consumption

Council of Foreign Relations | The Shale Gas and Tight Oil Boom (2013)
"Rising oil prices help the U.S. petrochemicals industry as long as natural gas prices remain low. If enough domestic natural gas were exported such that U.S. natural gas prices again moved with oil prices, the U.S. petrochemicals industry would no longer benefit from rising oil prices."

wikiwtf | North Dakota oil boom, 2006-2020
rig count and pipelines, yanno, like Keystone
The Atlantic | A North Dakota Oil Boom Goes Bust (2015)

WorldBank | Rising efficiency gains in U.S. shale oil
"Booming U.S. shale oil production played a significant role in the oil price plunge from mid-2014 to early 2016. Efficiency gains in the sector lowered break-even prices considerably, making U.S. shale oil the de facto marginal cost producer on the international oil market. "

BLS | The 2014 plunge in import petroleum prices: What happened? (2015)
"After peaking at $107.95 a barrel on June 20, 2014, petroleum prices plunged to $44.08 a barrel by January 28, 2015, a drop of 59.2 percent in a little over 7 months"