Putin’s Goals with Ukraine

As the invasion of Ukraine by Russia continues, I think it’s worth trying to understand Putin’s goals. In my previous post I stated that Putin seeks to control the countries that directly border Russia, and as such, Ukraine is a highly attractive target for security reasons (and symbolically valuable as they were the first nation to declare independence from the USSR). I still believe that’s true.

However as I’ve observed the actions of Russia during this invasion, specifically with Russia doing things like shelling and setting fire to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, as well as…