What does Putin want, A wasteland buffer zone?

[fightforfreedom]

It is impossible to figure out what Putin is thinking. He must know he cannot control 40 million people longterm. Right now it looks like he plans on surrounding major cities and then bomb, starve the people until they surrender. That will take a long time, the people of Ukraine are not going to give up. More and more weapons are pouring into Ukraine. A lot of Russian soldiers are going to die.

Is he planning to damage Ukraine, the government, so much it can no longer function as a country? That way he doesn't have to control it, just damage it so it can no longer function as a country.

[BeyondGeography]

1. And no economy

Genius.

[in2herbs]

9. Ukraine supplies the most neon, the product used for chip manufacturing and Russia

has provided the material to Ukraine to "mine" the neon out.

By owning Ukraine Putin would have both factors necessary for computer chip manufacturing resulting in an economy that would control the computer technology of the world.

Remember that just before the invasion Putin visited China -- the largest exporter of computer chips. And currently there is a shortage in the chip production the US needs to meet our demands.

I don't believe it's about oil or regaining land to create the Old Russia. Putin may need the profits from oil sales to pay for his investment of Ukranian neon, but after that manufacturing venture is up and running he won't need oil $$$ once he's got control of chip manufacturing.

[Irish_Dem]

2. Like after Pearl Harbor, Ukraine could be filled with a terrible resolve.

I don't think he can destroy the long term threat by just leveling the country. He would have to stay around for awhile and get some sort of control.

My .02.

[fightforfreedom]

5. It doesn't make sense.

Right now he has roughly 200,000 troops in Ukraine. That's enough to wreck it. It's not near enough to control a country the size of Ukraine. Perhaps he plans to wreck it and then keep enough troops in country to make sure it cannot be rebuilt, can never function as a country.

[Irish_Dem]

11. There is one way he could level Ukraine and then just leave.

He could give Ukraine rules to follow:

1. Form a puppet government with Putin in charge.
2. No democratic form of government, ever.
3. Do not join NATO.

If Ukraine violates these rules he returns and bombs them back to the Stone Age until they follow the rules.

[tinrobot]

3. If he can't have it, then burn it to the ground out of spite.

Sadly, that sounds very plausible.

[jcgoldie]

4. the USSR

He's deluded and cut off from reality by yes men.

[Beastly Boy]

6. Putin wants a staging area for invading the former Warsaw Pact members

[Strelnikov_]

7. No. The oligarchs were hoping for a quick decapitation and installation of a puppet government

The oligarchs want Ukraine mostly undamaged. No money to be made on ruins.

But, the corruption has resulted in an marginally effective military (lurking Trump supporters take note), so their 'Schlieffen Plan' is out.

The German invasion of France and Russia in August 1914 was supposed to be over "before the leaves fall".

Now, like all wars, it morphs into another form. War is a continuum, until it is turned off.


"No country starts a war thinking it will lose" - Sir John Keegan


"Never, never, never believe any war will be smooth and easy, or that anyone who embarks on the strange voyage can measure the tides and hurricanes he will encounter. The statesman who yields to war fever must realize that once the signal is given, he is no longer the master of policy but the slave of unforeseeable and uncontrollable events."

- Sir Winston Churchill

[Chainfire]

8. What Putin really wants is to cut Ukrainians out of oil revenues.

It is about money. A billion dollars to develop a private estate is just not enough for a man of Putin's stature.

[mitch96]

10. He was pissed when the former Soviet Union dissolved. He wants the glory of the USSR back.

Taking back the satellite country's invaded durning WW2 and UKR is the first country on his list. He has a real hard on to get UKR back. Invade, put in a puppet govt that is in the russian sphere of influence.. aka Stalin 2.0
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