There are growing fears of a Russian invasion of Ukraine. How likely is full-scale war? What is President Putin’s strategy? And what is the likely end-game?

The BBC podcast “Why Putin has his sights on Ukraine” explores these issues. Listen here.

Maxim Suchkov explained to Aljazeera about why Russia is worried about Ukraine becoming part of NATO and why it is massing over 100 thousand soldiers around Ukraine’s northern border. He said

There are no clear political goals behind that intervention. And I haven’t heard anyone clearly explain what the political goals could be because, ultimately, wars are fought to achieve certain political goals, not just for the hell of it.

Listen to his explanation below or watch on YouTube. For further discussion of this issue see this Aljazeera article.

Maxim Suchkov

He is acting director of the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO-University). He is also a non-resident expert at the Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC) and an associate research fellow at the Italian Institute of International Political Studies (ISPI).

A former editor of Al-Monitor’s Russia-Mideast coverage, Max is a prolific writer and author of several studies, book chapters, and articles on Russian foreign policy and strategy, as well as Moscow’s relations with the US, Turkey, Iran and Israel. His analysis and commentary have also appeared in the Survival, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, the American Interest, Foreign Policy, and the National Interest.

Earlier, Suchkov was a visiting professor at the IE University (2020), a visiting fellow at New York University (2015) and Fulbright visiting researcher at Georgetown University (2010-11). He is based in Moscow.