Former head of MI6 (M) wrote that Putin may pray for mountains in Ukraine as a buffer against the West

"Vladimir Putin says he is a religious man, a great supporter of the Russian Orthodox Church. If so, he may well go to bed each night, say his prayers, and ask God: ‘Why didn’t you put some mountains in Ukraine?’ If God had built mountains in Ukraine, then the great expanse of flatland that is the North European Plain would not be such encouraging territory from which to attack Russia repeatedly. As it is, Putin has no choice: he must at least attempt to control the flatlands to the west".
J. Scarlett, ‘Introduction’, In Marshall, T., 2016. Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps that Explain Everything about the World, London, Elliott & Thompson, 2016, p.1., (acknowledgments to Professor Glenn Diesen)