Based upon interactions here on Free Republic and various other sources, this war is a war over resources: Oil, Natural Gas, Water, Aluminum... as well as strategic buffering and traditional tyrant terrorizing. --------------------------------------------------------------- https://freerepublic.com/focus/news/4050271/posts?page=119#119 To: gleeaikin Look at the Azov Natural Gas Preserves region, and then look at Russia’s Occupation Map. He has captured all the land mass of the preserve and all the access land to the underwater portion of that preserve. Mariopol happens to be smack dab in the middle of it. All the shoreline of the Azov Sea West to just short of Odessa and then out...