I didn’t expect the invasion of Western Ukraine… but I currently assume it is to improve Putin’s negotiating position and to make it harder for Western Ukraine to mount an offensive against Eastern Ukraine.
But he may draw the Poles and even the Hungarians into the fight. There are parts of Western Ukraine that are mainly inhabited by Hungarians.
As a side note, Orban is in big trouble now because of this, he’s been friends with Putin, and even though now he has turned his back on Putin, it may be too little too late to save him in the upcoming election in April.
I don’t assume that. You don’t need 190,000 troops to protect eastern Ukraine.
And probably Putin wanted the oil and gas rich areas because they were competition for Russian oil and gas.
Any ..stan’s or any other country that was part of imperial Russia or the USSR and has oil and gas riches, had better keep a close eye on Russia.