They're looking to create a larger buffer between their major cities (i.e. Moscow, St. Petersburg) and NATO. Moscow is ~400 miles from Ukraine. St. Petersburg is ~100 miles from Estonia. This makes Putin uncomfortable. Ukraine is also a huge agricultural producer and has a lot of industrial capacity - both very useful for a situation in which Russia wants to be less dependent on the West.
yeah....I'm sure that industry and agriculture is going to be great asset to russia now.
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