I feel sorry for the people of Ukraine, and Russia too, actually. Except the top .001% that skim all the money off the government taxes and loans.
Russia really needs a southern port. Sebastopol is it. They fought a war in 1854, and another in 1943. Unfortunately the people that live west of Crimea are not Russian, don't use the Cyrilic alphabet, are in the Roman Catholic church, not the Eastern Orthodox, and don't speak Russian. And then there are the Moslem Tartars that originally lived in the Crimea but whose parents were deported in WWII.
I wish our (US) President and Secretary of State would keep their mouths shut sometimes. We're not going to fight a war over Crimea, look at the logistics just getting an Army there from here.
The eastern districts of Ukraine voted for Yanakovich (according to BBCnews), let them have him, his gold bathroom fixtures, rare wood paneling, and private zoo, too. Just let there be an organized vote, not some fiat enforced with weapons. The Ukraine elections have been 49% to 48% for years, there is a serious divide in the country, and the people of the East make their money off the Russians.
Putting the previous President/Prime Minister in jail because he/she lost the election is stupid with a 49-48 result every time that swings back and forth. Look at all those televisions LBJohnson carted off to Texas when he left the White House. Pay the old leader a retirement stipend, and forget him, if he takes his hand out of the cookie jar.
The whole thing blows up periodically because Ukraine burns natural gas from Russia they don't pay for. Let them buy insulation instead, or dig subterranean houses or something. Heating all those drafty stone piles of houses is pre-industrial. I can't believe Russia hasn't built a pipeline across BeloRussia to Poland to sell their methane; this has been going on for over a decade.