Zelensky was elected as the peace candidate, but was unable to get the right-wing militias that had been inducted into the reformed state’s army to stop shelling eastern Ukraine, which Putin used as part of his justification to invade. There were also some nasty laws passed, such as banning Russian from being used in schools.
I don’t believe Putin genuinely thinks an invasion is helping the Russian-speaking people of eastern Ukraine, rather I think that’s a pretense to address an existential security concern, having NATO-backed right-wing militias within reach of most of Russia’s population and industry.