Occupying countries where a sizable number of people hate you is generally not a good idea if you are not willing to be ruthless because it will tie up large pa

Occupying countries where a sizable number of people hate you is generally not a good idea if you are not willing to be ruthless because it will tie up large parts of your military in anti-insurgency activities. So I don't think that is the long term plan. If I were to guess, reversing the effects of the US-supported coup of 2014 will be one of the first things on the agenda. A defensible border will be the second goal. Mountain ranges and big bodies of water often make good borders. In Ukraine, the Dnipro river looks like a good candidate for a Ukraine-Russia border.