>>520522856
There is no "they" beyond putin and his increasingly insular and thus out-of-touch circle of advisors.
For putin the primary driving factor is regime security.
He believes and independent Ukraine that betters itself is a threat to his control by proxy because just as Ukrainians saw Poland and Belarus and chose the option of "without putin" the russian people might do the same.
Thee is also some narcissistic delusion and narratives of historical revisionism and repositioning of russia as some greater imperial power and some resource concerns on the side.
But the main factor is regime security.
Irrationality and imperial mania has been documented many times coming from various political and national tyrants and tyrannical systems all throughout history.