This explicitly means two things.
1.) Everybody need an alliance. You go neutral, you are the odd man out.
2.) Appeasement does not work.
Set aside Putin narrative for war (I keep telling people this war is not about Ukraine, nobody cares...anyway) what Putin want is not what Putin want, he want to stay on top of things, he wanted to be in control, but that is one thing he can control people within his border, it is another thing he can control the action outside his border, you can say this is where is insecurity come from, while we all accept the fact that people have independent thinking. He can't. This is not about ego, this is not about what other people do, this, the entire wat, is about CONTROL.
Things is when you ignore other people will and try to control them, they, well, fight back. I sincerely think Putin thought all these people will just drop their arms and go home when he tell them to. Otherwise there are no reasonable explanation that he would actually start this war. This is a zero gain war, basically, in specific term, even Putin win this war, he will lost the batter against NATO, you don't even need a general or half competent politician to see that.
As for Ukraine, Ukraine was a threat to Russia (At least in Putin Mind) is because they are neutral. He can take either they are with them, or they are against them. But neutral give Putin a extra layer of uncertainty, will they turn? will they remain? What will they do? All these question is what playing trick in his mind, not knowing is actually worse then they are hostile.
I don't know if that make sense to you....