> I still dont understand why Russia started all of this, why drag Europe into another world war scenario for a few villages? Russia's capture of the Crimea ~1

> I still dont understand why Russia started all of this, why drag Europe into another world war scenario for a few villages? Russia's capture of the Crimea ~10 years ago went exceptionally well for them. Russian special forces struck an essentially unprepared country, got control of a number of cities and key chokepoints, and forced the parliament at gunpoint to vote in favour of annexation, and ran a sketchy referendum with 97% support for annexation - all essentially before organisations like the EU even realised what was going on. Then, presented with a fait accompli, other european nations could either start a war with Russia or not, and they chose not to. Presumably Putin thought capturing the rest of Ukraine would go just as easily.