They didn't think that.

So he is intentionally destroying Ukraine and getting Ukrainian people killed on purpose? Ukraine was obviously being used as bait in order to get rid of Putin, with the destruction of the country being deemed worth it in order to remove a constant thorn in the Neocons/neoliberals side, Putin.

Ukraine has basically zero chance of "winning" at this point. The neocon goal is to turn it into another Afghanistan in order to bleed the Russians. Zelenksy was either too fucking stupid to know this, or too sociopathic to care. Take your pick. Either way he brought about the destruction of his country.