What does Putin want with Ukraine

[GamechaserBE]

Kasz216 said:

kitler53 said:
i was just asking myself this same question yesterday...

...if putin/russia has anything to gain from this i don't see it. seems risky with too many bad outcomes to me.

Russia has a naval base in Crimea where they keep their fleet... and it's pretty much the only place Russia can keep their western navy as northern ports freeze over too often to be reliable.

Basically to lose Crimea is to lose all western europeon naval capabilties.

Not totally correct because the new goverment (the one from last week) accepted that the Russia naval fleet can stay their.