“I don’t understand why the leader of the largest country on Earth needs a few more kilometres. This war is not about land; it’s about our independence," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy mockingly said last week.

⚡️ Zelensky: I don’t understand why the leader of the largest country on Earth needs a few more kilometers.“This war is not about land; it’s about our independence," he said. pic.twitter.com/UeYcpL5Kvy

— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) October 19, 2025

On the face of it, Zelenskyy’s logic makes sense. Russia is the largest country in the world, twice the size of the US or China, five times that of India, and is about 70 Britains put together. Russia has 11 time zones!

Indeed, why would a country of that size haggle for more landmass?

A widely acclaimed book by Tim Marshall, Prisoners of Geography, puts that debate in perspective. It argues that Russia’s geopolitical strategy is driven by its unique and constraining geography.

“Vladimir Putin says he is a religious man…........

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