https://www.wsj.com/articles/putins-ukraine-invasion-is-an-energy-heist-natural-gas-russia-ukraine-invasion-oil-nato-conflict-11649186174

There are four reasons to think this war is, or will default to, an energy heist. The first is Russian national interest. Taking Ukraine’s energy would give Mr. Putin the second-largest natural-gas reserves in Europe, worth more than $1 trillion at today’s prices. It would give him oil and condensate worth as much as $400 billion, and most
The second reason to think this war is a resource grab is Mr. Putin’s tactical focus. Russian troops are now concentrated in the parts of Ukraine that hold 90% of its energy resources. They have seized the Donbas and control Luhansk and Donetsk. They are embedded along the Black Sea coast and focusing extreme pressure on Mariupol. If the fighting stopped now, Mr. Putin would control all of Ukraine’s offshore oil, its critical ports on the Azov Sea, the Kerch Strait, 80% of the Black Sea coastline, and all critical energy-processing and shipping infrastructure.

The third reason is the treatment of Mariupol. If Mr. Putin’s core objective were the reunification of ethnic Russians, then pounding into dust the country’s largest urban center of pro-Russian Ukrainians would be an odd way to manage that reunification. If this is about control of Ukraine’s energy, however, that city is the essential land bridge to his Crimean assets and the critical port from which to ship resources from Donetsk and Luhansk.

Finally, he’s done this before. Mr. Putin’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 gave him Sevastopol and Ukraine’s exceptionally rich Black Sea assets—a windfall worth hundreds of billions of dollars. He passed these assets to Gazprom and declared an exclusive economic zone in the Black Sea, defended by the Russian navy.

Sadly, Mr. Putin learned from Crimea that the West protests, then forgets. Despite the imposition of sanctions, European Union imports of Russian energy, enhanced by the annexed assets, continued unabated. Europe is now paying Russia more than $100 billion a year, and is on track to import 90% of the energy it consumes by 2030.

Europe is so dependent on Russian gas partly because of climate considerations. Any serious commitment to reducing global emissions from coal requires natural gas. The U.S. has led the world in this regard, reducing emissions by more than 800 million tons while promoting economic growth by displacing thermal coal with gas to power the electrical grid. Coal burns at almost twice the carbon intensity of gas per unit of energy, so retrofitting European grids for gas significantly reduces emissions and provides baseload power that renewables can’t. But while the U.S. produced gas domestically, Europe off-shored its gas supply to Russia and banned domestic fracking and other energy production. The result was dependency.

Despotic regimes control most of the world’s energy via state companies. The democratic West relies on private companies operating in free markets, which have driven most of the innovation in cleaner fuels, carbon capture, nuclear and hydrogen. As NATO reorients itself, member states should pursue trade deals connecting the vast supply and technological innovations of the U.S. and Canada to Europe. The best way to beat this particular thief is to steal back his market.

Mr. Legg is an adviser to investment and political-risk firms. He is a former principal adviser to Alberta Premier Jason Kenney.

Hmmm, Russia,in every strategy they are there

Nazi Army invaded USSR/ Stalingrad because of oil. Red Army defended Staligrand by turning soldiers to cannon fodders. Ukraine-Russia war is likely to be prolonged because of what it is involved-oil and gas money.
There is a possibility it will lead to a brief or mini world war.

Putin is sick upstairs

[s]

joyandfaith:
Nazi Army invaded USSR/ Stalingrad because of oil. Red Army defended Staligrand by turning soldiers to cannon fodders. Ukraine-Russia war is likely to be prolonged because of what it is involved-oil and gas money.
There is a possibility it will lead to a brief or mini world war.

[/s]
those regions were never part of Ukraine to begin with.
they were given to ukraine during the soviet times and Russia empire time.
the real owners are here to take whats theirs as ukraine begin dey fall out of line

I wrote an article about this some weeks back . . . they want water in Crimea, they want the non-freezing seaports, they want Ukraine's oil and gas to ward off competition, so they can have the rest of Europe by their balls.

SOME PERSPECTIVE

Chimps are quite genuinely some of the nastiest animals on this planet.

Chimps will deliberately invade an enemy troop’s territory. They will attack if they have the numerical advantage, but run away if they don’t. They will beat the males to death, tear the babies limb from limb, and rape the females.

And they will do this repeatedly and consistently over a period of a decade so they can annex the territory of the other troop.

*Fun Fact:* We share almost 99% of our DNA with them chimps.

Putin=chimpanzee.

989900:
I wrote an article about this some weeks back.