This post was originally published on this site
https://static.independent.co.uk/2024/12/25/12/SEI234212486.jpg?quality=75&width=1200&auto=webp
Behind the Kremlin’s insistence on fighting to save the Russian ‘soul’ of a western-drifting Ukraine, there are crude practical benefits from seizing the territory where today’s fighting is worst, writes Mark Almond