Russia's need for power in foreign territory

 More than a year has passed since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which brought a state of war and waves of refugees to the area of ​​the hitherto peaceful European continent. The reasons why this conflict between two countries, which is resolved by arms, cannot be resolved diplomatically, can be several or only one, and that is power over others. 

Ukraine is believed to have been independent from the Soviet Union since 1991 with its 77.8% ethnic Ukrainians and only 17.3% Russians, if we check Wikipedia data from 2018. The Soviet Union is supposed to be a union of socialist republics that existed from 1922 to 1992. According to the same source and after its dissolution in 1992, the successors of this union with a one-party socialist system were the following countries: Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia , Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia. 

Before the collapse of the Soviet Union, it consisted of 15 of these Soviet socialist republics, and all of these republics are now independent countries. It seems, however, that Russia cannot come to terms with the collapse of the Soviet Union, which it has been at the head of for most of its existence. It has problems with the concept of freedom of association and disassociation and the decision-making of individual nations on their territory about the political system and their leaders. We all know the old saying: "If it doesn't go well, it goes badly". You could also say that if we can't convince you with our arguments, we will convince you with weapons. 

On the other hand, according to worldometer data, Russia, with its more than 146 million people, ranks 9th as the world's most populous nation. Russia is in 247th place in terms of the number of inhabitants per km². According to this criterion, Ukraine occupies approximately 100 positions less, which means that it has a higher population density. These data do not reveal to us the reason for the need for territory. The only reason for the Russian tendency towards the Ukrainian territory would therefore be found only in the tendency to rule the Ukrainian nation, because Russia is definitely not among the countries with the highest population density on its territory. 

Thus, they annexed Crimea to Russia already in 2014. At the end of last year, or rather in 2022, they annexed to Russia until this year the Ukrainian provinces of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporozhye, where the largest military battles between the Russian and Ukrainian military forces are still taking place today.

Of course, according to the previously mentioned data, we can also ask whether the Russian invasion of Ukrainian territory is just a prelude to the re-creation of the Soviet Union with Russian military aggression and the Russian military takeover of power in all the former Soviet socialist republics, which are now independent countries. In this case, a long-term state of war awaits us in the eastern part of the European continent, which will be accompanied, in addition to many killed soldiers, by waves of refugees, massacres and torture of civilians, destroyed homes and economic facilities, and other material damage.