[ek_hornbeck]

was struggling to come out of the dark ages of Soviet domination and into modernity

If their goal was modernity, they weren't doing a very good job of it. Even backwards, Muslim, war-torn Bosnia managed a (slightly) higher per-capita GDP in the 2010s than pre-war Ukraine did.

[ansel12]

LOL, look what you picked out of that post, ignoring the important parts answering your supposed puzzlement.

[adorno]

Even backwards, Muslim, war-torn Bosnia managed a (slightly) higher per-capita GDP in the 2010s than pre-war Ukraine did.

Bosnia, basically no bigger than a mid-size American city, compared to Ukraine, and country with about 40 million people?

But, can you imagine a small poor country with virtually no military to speak of, going up against the 2nd most powerful military in the world, and actually WINNING the war now? Unimaginable! The stuff of big-time movies. Bigger than David vs Goliath. Fathom that!