I was fascinated to hear repeated from several sources a comment from a presidential advisor called Zbigniew Brzezinski. He reported to the US President Jimmy Carter in teh 1980’s, and stated the importance of Ukraine to Russia. Simply put without Ukraine, Russia cannot call itself an empire, with it, then it can. Ukraine has (or at least had) 40 million people, while Russia 140 million, but Russia desperately wants to claim these 40 million as its own, as well as the strategic importance of the land and sea access (see below, perhaps Brzezinski can shed more light on how Russia and America „really see the rest of the world“): 

I will have to read „The Grand Chessboard“ the old fashioned way with the Mark One eyeball!