Yes, I did ignore the more practical goals of Russia in my post, thank you for responding and tacking them on.

"The bread basket of the world" and retention of the long-standing access point to the waterway are both significant economic points for Russia and deserve to be mentioned in the overall discussion.

I just thought that when compared to the nexus of malevolent plans for the Ukranian landmass that were/are in play for the U.S., NATO and their stateless corporate overlords, Russia's purely strategic aims are very... plainspoken, I guess would be a word I'd favor to describe them?

Simple and understandable by comparison. Accomplished, possibly, by a return to normal relations with the Ukranian state and its backers.... If the right set of leaders between the three nations were in power, maybe it wouldn't even require an expressly written treaty or the like. It's hard to say though - a lot of damage and destruction has occurred, sadly.

In any case there is no doubt that the West and specifically America had more than one ball rolling with regard to Ukraine. Bio labs, money laundering, resource dominance - it's a place where shadowy things happen and our worst actors from Intel and State seem to all have a connection - not for a second forgetting Hunter Biden and the family at large, who were actively involved and playing a significant role, right up until the time President Trump asked Zelenskyy a harmless question during a quick congratulatory phone call.

I just wanted to call attention to the planned joint venture between the multinationals and the US IC to capture and utilize resources in the Ukranian territory. The corpos grow quarterly profits and rake up billions and we isolate and starve the Russian economy, a win for the statecraft types and neocons who have long planned this within our government. That was a sketch of the original plan at least, who knows where they want to take it now.

We might figure it all out someday but for now I say prayers for an end to hostilities and a de-escalation.

The Black Sea port is Russia's only warm water port. They ain't about to give that up.