All the points below are true. Basically it comes down to the following....

a) Ukraine is insistent on joining NATO - will not accept being a buffer country like most of the rest of Eastern Europe (and Finland)

b) Ukraine was part of Russia until recently. It has less history as an independent country than - say - Estonia, Latvia or Lithuania. They want it back. Belarus is also a new country made out of the old USSR but they have made it clear where its support lies.

c) A minority (but still a reasonable minority) of Ukrainians would prefer to be Russian

d) Sadly in a country the size of Russia you do need something to occupy the hundreds of thousands of armed forces troops. If there is nothing to do you have potential insurrection. Wars do that. If you are trained to do something you want to do it and you need to do it. That is true of most of our troops who fought in the Falklands, Middle East etc - it's your job.

e) Ukraine's nickname is the breadbasket of the world - being back as part of Russia would improve standards (in Russia not Kyiv).

f) Putin knows the rest of the world is weak. Mainly due to opposition to Trump the US is now stuck with Biden, Germany has just changed its leader after 20 years of Merkel and we have Boris. There is probably only Macron of any substance. China will look on with interest but no more and N Korea may start dropping their own bombs. It is also worth noting that (I think) Ukraine seceded from Russia back in the day when Yeltsin was in charge - another weak leader far too fond of his vodka.

The above is highly simplistic but do form the core reasons.

Posted By: Saucerer, Feb 24, 11:05:14