If Russia will invade Ukraine in the near-future, as appears to be likely but not 100% guaranteed, just how far would Russia go (as in, just how deep inside of Ukraine) and what would Russia's war aims be other than preventing Ukraine from joining NATO? For instance, would Russia be content to have a neutralist regime led by someone like Yuri Boyko rule over eastern, southern, and central Ukraine while leaving western Ukraine in the hands of pro-Western Ukrainians, who would in any case be extremely likely to mount an extremely fierce insurgency against Russia? In other words, are we going to see a partition of Ukraine, with two rival Ukrainian governments and with one of these governments being propped up by Russian bayonets? I would presume that such a situation would also see a mass exodus of pro-Western Ukrainians to Western Ukraine and of pro-Russian and neutralist Ukrainians to Russian-occupied Ukraine, no? In other words, something similar to what previously occurred in Vietnam back when it was temporarily divided in 1954 after the end of the First Indochina War, with pro-Western and anti-Communist Vietnamese moving to South Vietnam and pro-Communist Vietnamese moving to North Vietnam.
Anyway, any thoughts on this?
Anyway, any thoughts on this?