Russian Aggression, False-Flag Attacks, Propaganda and Mindgames

Putin clearly wants Ukraine back in the control of Russia as he considers it historically part of Russia. 

He's been engaged in trying to take Ukraine over since at least 2014.

In 2014, Russian military forces annexed Crimea on the Black Sea. Moscow-backed separatists also took control of the eastern industrial regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, which are on Russia’s border. The ongoing conflict in eastern Ukraine has claimed some 14,000 lives. According to a 2001 census, more than 50 percent of the population in Crimea and Donetsk identified Russian as their native language. (Ukraine has not conducted a more recent census.) Putin claims he is defending the rights of Russian speakers in those areas. Conflict heated up this week in the Donbas region, which includes Donetsk and Luhansk. An observer mission from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe counted nearly 600 cease-fire violations on Thursday.

Putin is trying to use these Russian speakers and Russian sympathizers in eastern Ukraine to create a pretext for him to invade Ukraine. There are allegations of genocide by Ukraine against Russians in eastern Ukraine that are blatantly false.

It's likely Putin will use a series of false flag attacks against these Russians to create a pretext for a full invasion and of course Putin is no stranger to false flag attacks (neither is the US of course).

He's doing the same thing in other countries as well to try to get the Soviet empire back. 

Are there Russian-linked separatist regions in other countries? Yes. These “frozen conflicts” have been around since after the Soviet Union fell in 1991. They exist in the former Soviet republics of Azerbaijan, Moldova and Georgia and are widely seen as part of the Kremlin’s larger strategy to extend influence and evade sanctions. 

This podcast gives a pretty good overview of the current Ukraine situation, with some details on possible Russian military strategy, and where they might attack.

I do like what Biden is doing in terms of diplomacy and to try to keep war from happening. He's been laying out what he thinks Putin is doing and how Putin plans to invade and almost daring Putin to fulfill his prediction (which would be bad) or to be contrary and prove Biden wrong (which would be good).

If you think Ukraine is the aggressor, or Ukraine is controlled by fascists, you're buying into Russian propaganda, and sadly much of the Republican party and American rightwing is propagating it.