Even though Russia has the largest land mass of any other country by far. they don't get the production they'd like for various minerals while Ukraine has a motherlode of natural resources. They rank first in Europe in uranium mineral reserves, tenth in titanium mining, second in the production of manganese minerals, second largest in iron, seventh in coal reserves. second in mercury production, and third in Europe in gas reserves.
If this weren't impressive enough, Ukraine is an agricultural country as well. They rank first in crop surface areas (they can produce more crops), third place in basically what's called "good dirt," which is great black soil with a lot of nutrients, first place in sunflower products, fourth place in barley exports, fourth largest exporter in corn, fourth largest potato producer, fifth in rye, fifth in honey production, eighth in the world in wheat exports, ninth in chicken egg production, and sixteenth in cheese exports,
But there's more! They rank first in ammonia products, second largest gas pipeline in the world, eighth in the world in nuclear power, eleventh in the world in rail systems, fourth in the production of rocket launchers, and ninth in the world in the exporting of military supplies,
Needless to say, Ukraine is very attractive to Putin. I still don't think he's planning on invading Ukraine and is using it to gen up resources for their failing economy. Pretty bad when communists' countries get rewarded for not invading another country.
The picture below comes from the capitol of Ukraine called Lviv. When Russia isn't trying to invade the country it's actually a great place to visit including their beaches. It's where a lot of people vacation who live in Europe.