Putin's goal is to force Ukraine down, to keep Ukraine away from the West, to accept Putin's alliance under the city, Putin believes that as long as Ukraine is completely disappointed in the West, it will naturally accept the conditions of neutralization. For now, Zelenskiy is indeed disappointed in the West, but that doesn't mean Zelenskiy will easily give in to Putin. Ukraine resists Russia not because it likes the West, but because it hates Russia, so all the forces against Russia will unite ukraine.
Most people believe that the main reason for this conflict is NATO's eastward expansion, and once Ukraine joins NATO, it will be like a sharp knife against Russia's neck, so it will not be able to fight. This statement is also good, but it does not fully explain the occurrence of the Ukrainian war. There is no doubt that NATO's imaginary enemies are the Warsaw Pact, which was dominated by the Soviet Union, and now Russia.
As a military alliance, NATO can station troops and deploy missiles in its member states. The farther NATO expands eastward, the closer NATO troops and missiles are to Moscow, the more dangerous Russia will feel. Moreover, further east of Ukraine is the Great Plain of Eastern Europe, a horse flat river, no danger to defend, its border is only more than 400 kilometers away from Moscow, Russia naturally can not tolerate NATO to hoard troops to the borders of Ukraine. In fact, NATO countries have not yet formed a unified attitude towards the admission of Ukraine, and Ukraine's own hardware conditions cannot meet NATO's requirements. So "preventing Ukraine from joining NATO" is not an urgent matter. This is also the reason why many people are surprised when war breaks out.
Since the outbreak of the color revolution in Ukraine in 2004, Ukraine has gradually turned to the West. For Ukraine, it is already the trend of the times to turn to the West, and economically they aspire to be able to integrate into the big market of the European Union, and they also hope to be protected by the West in terms of security without having to work hard to balance the tightropes left and right. As a result, the Crimean incident broke out in 2014: Ukraine's Referendum on the Autonomous Republic of Crimea was incorporated into the Russian Federation. The Donetsk and Luhansk regions of the Donbass region declared the establishment of the "Donetsk People's Republic" and the "Luhansk People's Republic" respectively.
Why did Ukraine's choice to turn to the West trigger independence in these places? This is the legacy of Ukraine's history. The country is actually very divided, and the people of different regions do not agree in customs and positions, mainly because these regions were not Ukrainian in the first place. Modern Ukraine has a large amount of territory that the Soviet Union pulled down from Russia and allocated to him. This includes the now independent Crimea and Donbass regions
As can be seen from the above figure, the green areas in the north of Ukraine were sent by the Russian Empire from 1654 to 1917, the pink areas in the east were sent by Lenin in 1922, the dark green areas in the west were sent by Stalin in 1939, and the gray Crimean region in the south was sent by Khrushchev in 1954.
Other people's land is beaten up, and Ukraine's land is lying out, and when everyone belongs to the Soviet Union, this is not a big problem, but after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the problem comes.
First, Russia feels that it has suffered a big loss; then there are the areas that were demarcated from Russia during the Soviet era, where the proportion of Ethnic Russians is very high, and the identity of Russia is higher than that of Ukraine.
Finally, Ukraine's economic and living standards are too bad, with a per capita GDP of $3,000 at the bottom of Europe, and ethnic Russians in eastern Ukraine are often bullied, so they always want to leave Ukraine and return to Russia.
If Ukraine joins NATO in the West, it means that Russia and Ukraine will enter a state of hostility, which is unacceptable to people in these areas. This led to the division of Ukraine.
Therefore, whether from the perspective of historical origins or the survival of the country, Russia must keep these regions, not to mention that the industrial and agricultural foundation in this region is very good and the mineral resources are rich. The value is enormous for Russia. So Russia and pro-Russians in eastern Ukraine hit it off.
Now, the war has entered its fourth day, and all kinds of news are flying all over the world, and in this Internet age, we are overwhelmed and difficult to distinguish between true and false. Where this war will go is difficult to predict. But where the road lies, we can still talk about it.
First, if Ukraine is to survive and prosper, it must not be an outpost of either side against the other – it should act as a bridge between them.
As Russia, if you try to accept Ukraine into the status of a satellite country, so as to move Russia's borders again, it will fall into an endless cycle of mutual pressure with Europe and the United States.
At the same time, as the West, understand that for Russia, Ukraine can never be just a foreign country. Russian history originated in a place known as Kievan Rus' and from where Russian religion spread. Ukraine has been part of Russia for centuries, and their histories were intertwined before that. Beginning with the Battle of Poltava in 1709, some of Russia's most important battles for freedom were fought on Ukrainian territory. Even prominent dissidents like Alexander Solzhenitsyn and Joseph Brodsky insist that Ukraine is an integral part of Russian history and, indeed, part of Russia.
Finally, Ukrainian talent is the decisive factor. They live in a country with a complex history and multilingualism. Ukrainians in Western Ukraine speak Ukrainian, while Eastern Ukrainians speak mainly Russian. Any attempt by either side of Ukraine to dominate the other will eventually lead to civil war or division. Ukraine has been independent for only 23 years and has been under some sort of foreign domination since the 14th century. As a result, its leaders do not have a far-sighted political vision and deep national feelings, nor have they learned the art of compromise, let alone a historical perspective. Post-independence Ukrainian politics clearly shows that the root of the problem lies in the attempts of Ukrainian oligarchs to impose their will on the people, driven by capital, and the foreign slave compradors had no backbone.
Ukraine should be free to establish a Government that conforms to the expressed will of its people. Wise Ukrainian leaders should choose a policy of reconciliation between different parts of their country. In fact, they could emulate the external model of Northern Nordic Finland. There is no doubt that the country is very independent, cooperating with the West in most areas, but carefully avoiding institutional hostility to Russia. However, at present, Ukraine has been tossed around by those oligarchs in the social, political, and economic fields, otherwise it would not have been so anxious to insert bids and sell the thighs of the first and most despicable NATO. Of course, behind this is inseparable from the "perseverance" and "consistency" of the beautiful country.
Ukraine, regardless of the outcome of this war, has always been the biggest loser. Ukraine has also become the "powder keg of Eastern Europe", and the poorest Ukrainian people will become the "untouchables" of Europe, and it will be difficult to turn over for several lifetimes.
Therefore, unity, independence, and self-improvement are so important and indispensable to a country and a nation!