There are no benefits to Russia taking Ukraine. It means they will have to police a state which will fight back through the shadows. If Trump wins, this is over within a week. A simple, “we are going to drill and undercut your energy industry, bankrupting you” will be enough to get them to the table.
Zelensky will have to give up a lot of Deep State people.
Its called rebuilding the Russian empire.
"Without Ukraine the 'Russian Empire' cannot exist" Alexander Dugin, Putin's Nazi ideologue, says it clearly. What he calls the 'Russian Empire' is the USSR whose mummy Putin wants to resurrect.
It’s not about benefits to Russia. It’s Putin trying to restore the Russian/Soviet empire.