At the Centre of President Putin’s thought process in Ukraine’s invasion is an attempt to piece back together with the once soviet union. 

With Ukraine being the most significant piece to defect from the soviet union, not only that is an example being set for all other defectors to surrender before the unthinkable falls upon them but underlines the real reason of the invasion not being deep security concerns somewhat Russia’s long term territorial claims/ grievances. 

With the military nous at his disposal and aided by a disjointed west, the time is now, for Putin, it seems to redraw the boundaries in Europe once again. 

The Crimea motivation

Moscow’s annexation of Crimea seems to have acted as a catalyst for a long time planned full invasion of Kyiv. In 2014, there was no significant pain inflicted upon Putin for annexing Crimea from Ukraine apart from the regular mere empty condemnation and solidarity statements; in fact, they carry absolutely no weight, threats, or counter consequences whatsoever.

 It is vivid that Ukraine harbours no mouthwatering resources worth of western powers committing conventional boots on the ground, such as gas and oil. Putin, on that note, has invaded Ukraine knowing that he will be up against no resistance at best. Sadly, with no obstacle in hindsight, Ukraine’s future depends solely on Moscow’s tyrant.

Sanctions and their severe collateral damage

The west, be it individual nations or allied alliances, has responded to Russia’s Kyiv invasion of Kyiv via a string of sanctions that admittedly look severe. Sanctions are geared towards crippling Moscow’s fragile economy, although alarmingly, they can affect US citizens and allied countries engaged in trading with Russia. 

Top 50 influential oligarchs have been targeted, five big banks equivalent to 70% of the Russian banking system have been cut off from the world’s banking system, a ban on Russia’s access to the SWIFT banking system, limiting imports and exports to and from Russian, denying Russia to trade with global leading currencies such as US dollar, pound, euro as well as cutting off diplomatic privileges of Moscow’s diplomats and cutting off Russia’s access to the international monetary system. It remains to be seen if Putin personally is next in line to be severely sanctioned. 

Geopolitical head prefect crossroads 

The consensus among political analysts of international affairs is that the geopolitical hegemony in the last few years has lacked direction and has been left in total disarray with the personalities entrusted with the watchdog duties. 

The ascendancy of Trump in the US and Boris Johnson in the UK is believed to have left Putin feeling rightful of filling that void vacated by the two.

They are accused of lacking the personality and damagingly the seriousness of using their mighty economic and military influence to maintain order and guarantee Putin’s obedience.

With President Putin sniffing the leadership crossroads at the top of the global summit either through sheer incompetence or negligence, it has struck how he intends to hurt most and sending a clear cut message that he is currently running the show. It is difficult to argue that the west is dancing on Putin’s music on current events.