Nonsense. There is already about equal distance to Moscow from Latvia, a Nato and EU member, as there is from Ukraine. Despite, Ukraine was not really ever even close to Nato membership to start with. Western political alignment is completely separate from military alignment, although Putin has now made it absolutely clear these must go hand in hand for those sovereign countries he consider's "Russian vassal states."

He said himself as-much: he would sleep better knowing that the missiles wouldn't reach Kremlin.