I'm behind and this seems to be moving fast in the last few days but how does an invasion at all benefit Russia?
It seems like, on the world stage, it makes them look terrible?
What do they get out of it?
TLDR?

Snag some more hot Ukrainian women. While there, they can create another famine and kill a few million more like they did back in the good old days under Stalin.

From what is being stated, they want a buffer zone between them and NATO. Ukraine is that buffer zone.

Ukraine has a large amount of natural resources.  Ukraine is also a net exporter of a lot of agricultural products.

So they don't have Western-aligned or Western-friendly forces on their border. Plus resources and land.

Russia's only historically reliable source of economic growth has been larceny.

Russia wants shit, Ukraine has shit.

The Ukraine is the bread basket of Europe. One of the top exporters of wheat in the world.

Natural gas pipeline to EU goes through Ukraine. Russia pays Ukraine commissions on that gas. Russia is trying to sidestep Ukraine with a pipeline around all other countries but EU is playing games with them. To speed up the games, sabre rattling is necessary.

Putin wants to put the USSR back together under him. A lot of Russians feel that it was a big mistake to let the other "Socialist Republics" go and form their own countries, and want them back under Russian control, even some Russians that don't support Putin do support putting all the countries back together as Russia.

They don't. But if they say they will invade if ABC doesn't happen and you have a potato in the white house who believes it and will cave to keep you from doing what you wouldn't do anyways, you can get what you actually want for free.

You know what the Ukraine is? It's a sitting duck. A road apple, Newman. The Ukraine is weak. It's feeble.

this is some of it. some of it is putins ego. never underestimate the power of ego, it got germany into two world wars, first with the kaiser and then with the fuhrer.

Apparently unkraine has THE deal with corrupt democrats on lockdown, and that has to be pretty lucrative. Since Texas has the gdp of Russia you gotta understand they're still fighting over rolls at the dinner table.

Looking terrible on the world stage, what a problem to have.

You do realize that most of the world is Communist Lite?

The Seinfeld writing was probably the best of any sit coms evah?

It's a great place for huge tank battles. Who doesn't want huge tank battles?

Crimea needs fresh water from via the northern Crimea canal from the dneiper, of which Ukraine cut off 90% of the capacity.

I haven't seen it referenced much but thats a good enough reason for the Kremlin to annex more of Ukraine.

Add the pipeline, natural resources and more buffer space from NATO and it seems like Putin has lots of reasons to benefit.

It's called a buffer. Russia does not want a NATO country on its border. Would be the same as Mexico joining with Russia and letting Russia install air defense systems near our border (ala Cuban missile crisis)

It’s bait, “geopolitical pivot”

Are modern militaries even preparing for mass armor engagements? I thought the US military (and most near-peer forces) was trying to downsize their armor assets? Or are the US military leaders/strategists just woke and retarded?

Let's hope the Ukrainian wheat harvest doesn't fail.

Germany isn't solely to blame for the wars.

Austria started the conflict by murdering thousands and pushing a whole country for the wrongs of a few Austrian citizens (ironic).

The British and French declare war with the idiotic plan of sitting back and trying to reenact WW1. Their objective was never to save Poland, who they sold out to the Soviets. It was to save their own Empires while making sure Germany never became an Empire.

So what are your thoughts.  Everything east of the Dnieper River or south where the Russian speaking people live?  Maybe they are thinking of the entire country?

There are still a lot of people who remember the USSR and Russian control

Or Canada signing an agreement with China and letting China build a few military bases and cycle in and out Chinese soldiers and equipment - you know, for peaceful protection from... Brazil....

(NATO/US claim the missiles are for protection from Iran)

As I understand it, the USSR had a major year-round naval base there. They get kind of pissy when they lose naval bases.

All this, plus access to the black sea

Lots of Swamp critters have "Interest" in that place. If we do it will be because of their Syndicate.

“The jealous and intolerant eye of the Kremlin can distinguish, in the end, only vassals and enemies, and the neighbors of Russia, if they do not wish to be one, must reconcile themselves to being the other.”      

- George Kennan

Those missiles in Cuba weren't defensive.

But go ahead and keep carrying water for the Kremlin. It's the GD thing lately.

At least until Russia decides that Ukraine is part of Russia, and they need the country or land to the west of Ukraine too, because just Ukraine wasn't enough of a buffer...and it keeps expanding what they say they need as a buffer zone.

Neither were our missiles in Turkey. I doubt we would be happy if Russia put S-500 in Canada or Mexico. Missiles that can jeopardize our retaliatory capability.

Our Missiles in Turkey were not "defensive" either..

Oh, that's right, our history books over look that part.

Nuclear Missiles in both cases - offensive weapons intended to deter enemies behavior.

In the same rationale, a defensive weapons, like the NATO Missile Shield, is designed to remove that deterrence, which makes it an offensive maneuver as well.


"I can nuke you but you can't nuke me" is what it boils down to.

Democrats give them kickbacks for starting another war they can blame on Trump this time.

Look at a map.

The Ukraine is right on Russia's doorstep and within spitting distance to some of their largest cities.  

NATO has been inching closer and closer to Russia with its military assets and alliances.  Russia has a legit concern about their national security, because it is clear to any reasonable observer that NATO still views the Russians as adversaries. Now I could argue that NATO is correct to view Russia as an adversary, but that doesn't change the fact that they do and the Russians know that to be a fact.

Russia does NOT want NATO assets or hardware in the Ukraine.  The USA and the UK have sent ATGMs into the Ukraine and provided military training.  The Russians fear that the Ukraine is on a path to become tied to NATO or even eventually a member state of it.  If the Russians allow the Ukraine to continue its cooperation with NATO and receiving assistance from NATO it could reach a point where invasion of the Ukraine is no longer feasible without massive losses.  So, Russia feels it has to act now to nip this thing in the bud otherwise they may not have an opportunity to do so later.

I would argue though that Russia can achieve victory without military action. NORD Stream 2 will bypass the Ukraine for oil and natural gas into Central Europe.  The Ukraine will be damaged financially due to that action.  The Ukraine like most of the world is suffering from economic downturn and they have an incredibly corrupt government. In fact, the only thing uniting the Ukraine people right now is their fear/dislike of the Russians.  If the Russians spent less time being militarily hostile and more time pushing their propaganda into the Ukraine they could most likely push into power pro-Russian Ukraine politicians.  NATO will, at least for time being, is not planning on bringing Ukraine into the fold and its military support of the Ukraine is next to nothing.

The USA sent nearly $4 Billion dollars to Israel last year in military aid.  The USA sent just half a billion dollars to the Ukraine.  Israel has punk insurgents to deal with whereas, Ukraine has the entire Russian military on its doorstep.  That tells you about how serious the USA is in terms of its commitment to the Ukraine, which is to say "not serious at all."  With the approval of NORD Stream 2 the Russians will not only crush the Ukraine financially, but once that is up and running the Russians will make billions for military modernization.  In addition, NORD Stream 2 will make the EU and therefore NATO so dependent on Russian oil and natural gas that Russia's diplomatic position will be strengthened.

So, I don't see why the Russians would bother with a military invasion of the Ukraine.  The approval and soon construction of NORD Stream 2 has sealed the fate of Ukraine, they are toast with nothing more than token assistance from NATO and no hope to join the NATO alliance.  The Ukraine is lost for all intents and purposes and it's only a matter of time before its population realizes it was abandoned by NATO and turns to Russia with open arms.

One thing I haven't seen is the Russians moving up Field Hospitals to accompany the Russian military forces currently staged near the border.  If Russia was really planning an invasion the Russians would have Russian field hospitals set-up to handle any Russian military wounded. The Russians would be stock piling fresh blood, literal blood, in anticipation of wounded Russian soldiers. They are not doing these things and so I believe if there is Russian military action it will be limited to air strikes or something very token not a full on invasion.

Meh.

And those inmates just make homemade knives to protect themselves from the COs.

Joy. Did we deny it? And all of this led to the INF treaty. You know, the one Russian later violated.

Yawn, not going to rehash the history of the last 50 years and get to hear all the anti-American narrative again.

How do you do, fellow Americanski.

It would buffer NATO- think new “iron curtain”. It would also give Russia control of a strategic piece of ground that basically creates Eurasia, a major agriculture center for the globe and effective control of the Black Sea.

The buffer against NATO is the primary driver as it was when they moved into Crimea.

Buffer against NATO doing what?  Writing a sternly worded letter?  Give me a fucking break.  Russia just steals.  That's what they fucking do.

What did I write that is pro-Russian?  I simply state facts. If that is inconvenient to the Neo-Conservative hawks who want their Raytheon stock to rise in value then so be it.

Joe Biden sealed the Ukraine's fate the minute he approved of NORD Stream 2.  Trump understood that NORD Stream 2 had to be blocked.  NATO is nothing more than a collection of counter-terrorism and insurgency militaries not one suited to fighting a conventional conflict, not even close.  Trump tried to get NATO off its collective ass and get its nation states to commit their bare minimum 2% GDP in defense spending, but those lazy @#%(s wouldn't even do that.

We as a nation and NATO are not in any position right now to be encroaching on Russia. If we wanted to put Russia into submission we should have been doing things like strengthening the conventional military capabilities of NATO and not allowing central Europe to be dependent on Russian oil and natural gas. I'm sick of politicians making us as weak as humanly possible then asking our military to do more with less resulting in disaster.

When the Russians start stockpiling blood then you'll know they're serious.  

Look for reports of Russian Military medical units moving into place and a Russian blood drive to get the blood necessary for wounded.  The logistics are key here.  If the logistics aren't in place the Russians would be foolish to launch a full on invasion of the Ukraine.  

If I were the Russians and thinking seriously about a Ukraine invasion I'd also be making overtures to the Polish to reassure them as much as possible that no Russian military forces would threaten their borders. It would be important for the Russians to make sure that the Poles did not believe they were next on the invasion schedule and launch a pre-emptive strike into the Ukraine.  I'm not seeing the Russians doing that, at least not openly.  Poland's military is no joke and the Russians don't have enough forces right now positioned to handle them very well.

They want the deep water port for the Navy.

Nato shares defense technology and allows US forces to strategically stage. Nato has continued to grow and russia wants to as well.

Bet Ukraine wishes they would have kept some of those nukes.

It gives them a better buffer zone from Nato and more natural resources.

All true on the surface, but once you look at the details NATO has grown weaker not stronger.

NATO has never had more territory to defend than now, but NATO defense spending has never been lower.  NATO was magnitudes stronger in the wake of the break up of Yugoslavia in 1992, but look at how inept and poorly it handled that situation in its own backyard. NATO is much weaker conventionally now than it was in 1992.  

USA commitment to Ukraine is pathetic. The USA only sent about half a billion in military aid to the Ukraine last year. By comparison that same year the USA sent about $4 billion in military aid to Israel. I mean we have lottery winners who win close to half a billion.  Half a billion in military aid is nothing.

Yes. Ukraine was the breadbasket of the Soviet Union.  And Ukraine has oil.

Creates more stand off space from NATO. Plus if he gets away with it, he can then bully the Baltic States knowing nothing will happen to him.

I never said I approved of Russia installing missiles in Cuba. Calm down.

That’s one of the main reasons that Russia wants the Ukraine, plus the geography just fits the Russians to a tee. It’s very handily located for Russia.



It is like a hook in the jaw of Russia.

It's nice that we don't have a guy in the Oval office anymore who liked kissing Putin's butthole. So we can finally go back to hating Russia again. In it's rightful place.