Submitted by M Tovey (United States), May 11, 2022 at 17:59
The Russian (Leader) fascination with the Ukraine is historically connected with the Russian (empire) for a very long time; and those connections apparently are hard to diminish when considering how deep those connections go.
The Russian is obviously determined in his era to reestablish lost influences for reasons one might speculate about for ambitions of empire again, but much appears to be for his own reasoning, even though it mimicks Russian history in general in which the Soviet ambition to maintain a dominating presence required the very warm water access that now appears to be on the threshold of that very reestablishment.
The Ukraine is perfectly aligned to thwart any Russian expansion, so takeover becomes the obvious objective and the Ukraine has been historically subjected to the regional jealousies of just about any era that saw the region overrun for empire's sake. Were it not for the threat of nuclear influences being employed, history here woold liely be repeated yet again: but the nuclear reality really does make a difference when the threat can become a reality if the Russian does not get his way; not kidding.
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