Invading a country is easy, occupying it and annexing it is extremely difficult. The only times it seems to be viable is when the local population is already within your cultural sphere, speaks your language, and is ethnically similar. Putin certainly could go on an annexation spree but he would be stymied very quickly by local resistance in places that aren't 80%+ ethnically and culturally Russian.

Why would he feed another country? Crimea is a strategic territory, LNR/DNR protect access to RF borders, and both are home of ethnic Russians, but the rest? Only throwing away good money.

In his strategic interest he would let the West to continue throwing finances here.

Well, no, not really. It's plausible given his rhetoric that he'd be interested in all of Novorossiya.

He would need support of local population for that. And if locals want it, why not? Right for self-determination, after all. At least that was the excuse when USSR/Yugoslavia/etc were broken down.

But it is not that simple; any such territory would be a drain on Russian economy. For now, it is tactical advantage to keep Europe and US to drain theirs here. (One of reasons, why opolchentsi stopped before Mariupol few years ago).

Ukraine is has fantastically fertile crop land, and Russia is today a net importer of food. Food has never been a trivial concern for Russia or Russians.

Thanks to sanctions, Russia is net exporter of food now.

Sure, Ukraine has fantastic crop land, but their western partners are already taking care of it.

So… Anything to say to this now?

> Crimea is a strategic territory, LNR/DNR protect access to RF borders, and both are home of ethnic Russians, but the rest?

Odessa is the biggest port in Ukraine. Controlling it (and Mykolaiv) will make Ukraine a land-locked country, in addition to providing Crimea with reliable access to electricity, water and supply routes (in addition to connecting Russia with Transnistria). These are only the rational reasons, but Putin apparently has fears and complexes that go beyond those.