[a235]

Ukrainian here.

Ukraine gave up on its nukes in nineties in exchange for military guarantees from US, NATO and Russia. No warheads, no enriched uranium (has been given away by the current president in exchange of nice handshakes with US at the beginning of his term).

Russian leaders are trying to restore its Soviet era, where Ukraine used to be the second most populated country after Russia itself. Clearly, this is a big deal for them. Location wise is not that important, all Baltic countries are way closer to Moscow.