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Ukraine has lots of valuable natural resources, but Russia has much more of everything. The biggest reason for the invasion is most likely that Putin could not let a “brother nation” prosper and drift towards Europe and being a functioning democracy.
Russia’s population might get wild ideas if they saw that their Ukrainian cousins’ standard of living starts to rise rapidly while they have to endure living under a fascist dictator. And substandard and underdeveloped infrastructure, due to the rampant corruption and a government who doesn’t give a shit about the areas outside the larger cities.
It’s that but (playing devil’s advocate for a second) Russia “traditionally” had a huge buffer between Moscow and the evil west. If Ukraine goes European and -worse- NATO, then that evil west with their evil ideas like freedom and democracy is suddenly quite close to Moscow’s doorstep.