He wanted to see who would win the 2020 elections because Trump had promised to remove the United States from NATO. Thus removing any US support for Ukraine and Europe whatsoever, because the Republicans would not have cared. When this did not happen, he knew he had no choice as many population reports have stated that the Russian population is in large decline as there are more 60-year-olds, than 50-year-olds, and more 50-year-olds than 40-year-olds, and so on and so forth. 2022 was probably the last year Russia had enough young people to do wage this war. Russia probably won't be around to see 2070. So on 21 February 2021, the Russian Defence Ministry announced the deployment of 3,000 paratroopers to the border for "large-scale exercises" followed by 1,000s of other personnel from the Russian Ground Forces, and then declared a "special military operation" only 1 year later. It would not have mattered who won, he would have done it anyways, one way or another.