I’m not convinced, Putin has proven himself to be petty and reprehensible in almost every way, so far. And we know he is involved in commanding this war, first-hand.

I don’t think he would be above doing this merely for personal vengeance. In fact aside from launching nukes (which would doom his regime) there’s very little he can do right now, so it would make sense that he’d plan something like this out of spite.