Russia Ukraine war, page-208848

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".