There's this quote from Zbigniew Brzezinski's *The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy and Its Geostrategic Imperatives* (1997), according to which Ukraine is a means to an end: to change Russia:
> Ukraine, a new and important space on the Eurasian chessboard, is a geopolitical pivot because its very existence as an independent country helps to transform Russia.
Without Ukraine, Russia would cease to be a Eurasian empire, and > […] if Moscow regains control over Ukraine, with its 52 million people and major resources as well as its access to the Black Sea, Russia automatically again regains the wherewithal to become a powerful imperial state, spanning Europe and Asia. Ukraine's loss of independence would have immediate consequences for Central Europe, transforming Poland into the geopolitical pivot on the eastern frontier of a united Europe.
SCHMIDT, Helmut. Review of “The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy and Its Geostrategic Imperatives.” Foreign Policy, no. 110 (1998): 179. https://doi.org/10.2307/1149289.
This latest book by Zbigniew Brzezinski, former national security advisor in the Carter administration, will no doubt cause controversy, if not in the United States then at least in China, Europe, and Russia. The book’s subtitle, *American Primacy and Its Geostrategic Imperatives* does not suggest much empathy for other nations and their legitimate interests. Nevertheless, this is a book to be read and to be taken seriously.