Ukraine has lots of valuable natural resources, but Russia has much more of everything. The biggest reason for the invasion is most likely that Putin could not let a “brother nation” prosper and drift towards Europe and being a functioning democracy.
Russia’s population might get wild ideas if they saw that their Ukrainian cousins’ standard of living starts to rise rapidly while they have to endure living under a fascist dictator. And substandard and underdeveloped infrastructure, due to the rampant corruption and a government who doesn’t give a shit about the areas outside the larger cities.
It’s that but (playing devil’s advocate for a second) Russia “traditionally” had a huge buffer between Moscow and the evil west. If Ukraine goes European and -worse- NATO, then that evil west with their evil ideas like freedom and democracy is suddenly quite close to Moscow’s doorstep.
Not particularly, the problem is that Russia is stupid and would rather try to annex Ukraine rather than invest time and resources into the development of Siberia. Also they don’t want to actually improve things just make them worse.
does ukraine actually have resources? russia is gigantic what could they possibly need so badly
Ukraine has lots of valuable natural resources, but Russia has much more of everything. The biggest reason for the invasion is most likely that Putin could not let a “brother nation” prosper and drift towards Europe and being a functioning democracy.
Russia’s population might get wild ideas if they saw that their Ukrainian cousins’ standard of living starts to rise rapidly while they have to endure living under a fascist dictator. And substandard and underdeveloped infrastructure, due to the rampant corruption and a government who doesn’t give a shit about the areas outside the larger cities.
It’s that but (playing devil’s advocate for a second) Russia “traditionally” had a huge buffer between Moscow and the evil west. If Ukraine goes European and -worse- NATO, then that evil west with their evil ideas like freedom and democracy is suddenly quite close to Moscow’s doorstep.
They have some rare earth minearals and a lot of farmland.
anything fancy that russia doesn’t have ?
Not particularly, the problem is that Russia is stupid and would rather try to annex Ukraine rather than invest time and resources into the development of Siberia. Also they don’t want to actually improve things just make them worse.