Quote Originally Posted by Taunton Blue Genie View Post
I don't agree. Putin sees Belarus, Ukraine and Russia as an historic entity built on the history of shared Rus culture. Kyiv/Kiev is predominantly a Ukranian-speaking city but was regarded as the cultural capital of that entity way before Moscow came to prominence.
And I'm sure that he would not have wanted a pro-western rump of Western Ukraine between Russian-occupied Ukraine and Transnistria.