Russia and Ukraine

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Absorbing Ukraine into Russia can be done in many ways.  For example a strongly Russophile regime similar to the lukashenko regime in Belorus can make a nominally independent and neutral state effectively part of Russia for economic and military purposes.    The integration could even go from de facto to de jure at a later with some kind of treaty of federation.

Keep in mind USSR was technically not a unitary state but a federation of independent states sharing a common form of government.   Internally the Soviet Union always portrayed itself as such.    So Putin would likely find a renewal of the Soviet arrangement entire,y satisfactory.

That absolutely works if you don’t have 20 million civilians taking up arms against the regime.

Boru