Putin's War on Ukraine has lasted over a 100 days, with no pid end in sight. After loosing his bid to take Kyiv, his war aims have shifted to taking the Donbas region. Russian separatists have been fighting the Kyiv government for almost a decade in this industrialized region. These forces, supported by Russia, occupied about 17% of the nation's land area; now, the Russians control about 75% of the region, or together with Crimea and the southeastern coastal strip, a fifth of Ukraine. Negotiating an end to the fighting under these circumstances is a difficult proposition for both sides. Fighting in Donbas is now a war of attrition with both sides taking serious casualties, although the higher number is believed to be on the Russian side. The Biden Administration recently acceded to Ukraine's request for HMARS, a mid-range battlefield missile, it believes could help it push the Russians out of the country. But no single weapon system will win this war.
So why is Putin willing to risk thousands of Russian lives and debilitating international sanctions to take over the Donbas completely? Aside from the obvious propaganda claims of "de-nazification"*, wars are often fought over resources. Ukraine is rich in resources, notably natural gas, coal, and iron ore. Rich and extensive farmland supplies the international grain market. According to the US Department of Agriculture, Ukraine is the world's fifth largest exporter of wheat, fourth largest of corn, and first in sunflower oil and meal. It also produces in significant amounts sugar beets and potatoes. Disruption of Ukraine's wheat harvest threatens to produce famine in Africa. Besides untapped gas reserves estimated to be among the largest in Europe, (26th in the world) the country is criss-crossed by transnational gas pipelines. Even though not a member of NATO, Ukraine is the fourth largest recipient of US military aide. US Person always made sure he occupied Ukraine when he played the board game of "Risk". This informative chart shows the story:
*Ukraine has a history of extremist right-wing parties, including national-socialists. Ukrainians fielded a volunteer Waffen SS division in 1943 called the First Galician that fought the Red Army. Fast forward to today's Azov Battalion made up of neo-nazis. After a bitter and protracted siege of the Azvostal Steel plant in Mariupol, surviving members of the Battalion were forced to give up. Prisoners were directed to undress, exposing their nazi tattoos--swastikas, black suns, and SS numbers 14 and 88. A celebrated name in Ukrainian history is Stepan Bandera who lead a faction of the ONU, the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, An ultra-natioinalist party that had sympathies for, and collaborated with Nazi Germany. Bandera's followers made up two of the most famous battalions, Roland and Nachtigall, that were trained by the Abwehr prior to Germany's invasion of Russia. Roman Shukhevych, Nachtigall's deputy commander, participated in the execution of Ukrainian Jews.
Bandera spent most of his adult life underground or in prison. In 1956 he was murdered by a KGB agent. Today he is an iconic freedom-fighter hero of the right. So Putin's claims of nazi taint are not wholly imaginary, but they are wildly exaggerated. For example, Putin has accused the Ukrainian government of genocide. The ultra-right's presence in modern Ukrainian politics is complex. Svoboda, the modern far-right party, did not make the 2% electoral threshold in the most recent election, but according to knowledgeable observers it possesses resources and support outsized from its electoral popularity. They point to its successful effort to block the Minsk Protocol--intended to end the Donbas fighting-- in parliament. Nationalists stage a violent 2015 protest against the decision to pass the Protocol in which four policeman was killed by a hurled grenade. No one was prosecuted for the incident. In 2019 Azov Battalion veterans occupied the village of Zolote in Luhansk despite President Zelensky's intent to withdraw and begin implementation of the Minsk Protocol.