Ukraine isn't a progressive country, though. They banned leftist parties and contain Nazi brigades like Azov. If Putin wanted to "oppose Western Values," he'd target a country representing them.

As for the natural resources, this makes more sense, and is actually a secondary reason behind the invasion, the primary one of course being what they initially pushed for in the peace talks at the beginning of the war a few years ago, NATO neutrality and demillitarization. Now that that peace deal didn't go through, they are eyeing ways to recuperate the cost of war.

NATO isn't about "taking war off the table." There isn't an "economic solution" to Imperialism that would not be resisted millitarily by NATO. See Iraq, Afghanistan, Vietnam, Korea, Libya, Cambodia, Cuba, etc. NATO is about mantaining a brutally oppressive international system of exploiting the Global South for super-profits in the Imperialist countries.

Even economic solutions like de-dollarization are met with millitary aggression and coups from NATO countries.