I was gonna a start a thread on this idea. so, VM was nice enough to start one. lol.
so, heres what I think is going on with why putin is doing this. I don't think he wants all of ukraine, just parts of it.
1. He wants Ukraine binded to Russia the way Belarus is with a Pro-Russian president who doesn't mind rigging votes to stay in power. He lost Ukraine several years ago with the maiden revolution that overthrew a pro-russian president who fled to russia. he wants a puppet state obedient to Moscow.
2. he wants better access to the crimea peninusula where the russian navy port is based. so he wants luhansk, dontesk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia oblast. I guess if he really wants to be mean, he can the rest of the ukraine coastline. he'd take Mykolaiv and Odessa Oblast which would make ukraine landlocked.
Originally Posted by dilbert firestorm
looks like i was right about the 2nd part. russians have established a narrow land bridge to crimea.
Odessa may be next.