How many countries does Russia intend to take over?
IMO Russia intends to stop the Ukraine, Georgia & Moldova from joining NATO despite moves by NATO generally and the US specifically to ensure that NATO recruits these countries .
There were no issues in this region until the NATO meeting in Bucharest when NATO/USA revealed its plan to recruit Georgia & the Ukraine despite objections from France & Germany because both knew well where Russia's red line was with respect to Russian National Security.
Georgia then had advanced its negations with NATO and 3 months after the Bucharest NATO meeting , Russia invaded Georgia annexing 2 of its oblasts within a week. This immediately disqualified Georgia from joining NATO because of NATO's requirement of an applicant's "stable borders"
IMO this set the precedent for the Ukraine and the rest is history starting with the Maidan Revolution in late 2013.
The Ukrainian Populists made a decision then to get rid of the elected Government and pursue membership of both NATO & the EC sand in reaction Russia immediately annexed the Crimea.
This is all about Geopolitics and not personal morality where power and the art of the possible are the deciding factors; not right/wrong....good/bad.
America led the way in the 2nd half of the 20th C in this respect by interfering in other countries' civil wars and debunking foreign leaders who America saw as 'anti-American".
