The other side in this conflict is the socialists in Brussels and their allies in Ukraine who want Ukraine (and Crimea) to have the same "human rights" as the rest of Europe like the "right" to commit suicide and have your organs harvested, and the "right" to have free housing and healthcare. There are a smallish number of people who would benefit from integration with the EU, mostly by selling real estate to wealthy Europeans and more consumerism in general. But consumerism and "economic rights" are not free as we saw in Greece and other southern European countries.
Faced with that choice I am not surprised that a lot of people chose Putin.