justin_o_guy2 wrote on 02/19/14 at 13:50:17:Ukraine declined joining the EU,, suddenly,, much turmoil,, connection? I say so,.
That is not quite correct.
Under the Soviet regime, the Ukraine was simply one of the many republics which formed the Nation, very much like California or Texas contribute to the USA.
As a Soviet Republic, the Ukraine "suffered" mass immigration of ethnic Russians, who settled in the northern portion of the Country and in the Crimean Peninsula,
harbor to the 5^ Eskadra (manned almost entirely by ethnic Russians and Bielorussians), the Navy Task Force equivalent to USNavy's 6th Fleet in the Mediterranean.
But once the USSR disintegrated, the Ukraine opted for sovereignty, i.e. independence. This was in 1990.
Similarly, while being still equipped with 100% soviet equipment, the Ukraine opted out of the Warsaw Pact and its successor, the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO)
and applied to join NATO-funded Partnership for Peace (PfP).
Under Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko, the Ukraine began negotiations to join both the EU and NATO. Russia fiercely opposed this program.
PM Timoshenko lost the following elections to the "ethnic russian" opponent, who had her accused of a number of ugly charges and jailed.
She is still in jail, regardless the EU's calls for leniency (not pardon) and her ill state of health.
The current turmoils are only in part "EU-centric". What Ukrainians really want is the resignation of an openly pro-russian and corrupt regime and new elections.
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