Ukrainian legislature votes to remove Yanukovych. New elections set for May

quote:

---

Elect a President who won't sell out to Russia, and then dare Putin to attack a sovereign nation and their duly elected government.

---

I don't think Putin would go that route. He appears to be much more sinister.

Given that eastern Ukraine is pro-Russia (while western Ukraine is pro-Europe), he'll start unrest in the eastern half, and either try to steal the May election or destabilize the opposition.

quote:

---

does anybody else think this will break out into a civil war and we end up with an independent east ukraine and west ukraine becomes part of russia?

---

Won't happen. There could be a civil war, but there won't be a split. Kyiv is way too important for both sides historically, politically, and religiously.

This whole Russian vs Ukrainian meme is really simplistic. First Yanukovych is as much Belorussian and Polish as he is Russian ethnically.
The people in Eastern Ukraine are Ukrainians and just as proud of their nation as those in the West, they don't want to be dominated by Russia.
It was the Eastern Ukrainians who suffered the worst of the holodomor. Ukrainian Cossack traditions are stronger in the East.
There is a lot of neo-Soviet nostalgia that tends to emerge amongst groups, and this is what is predominant in places like Kharkov and Odessa, and I guess you can say there are similarities, but you can not automatically equate pro Soviet to pro Russian, and this becomes very complex.
There are numerous pro Western politicians who have trouble speaking Ukrainian, especially in Kiev.
The dirty little secret is that when Yanukovych was Prime Minister before the Orange Revolution, more substantial results were achieved to push Ukraine toward the EU and the West.