“Even ethnic Ukrainian Russophones feel connected to the Russian faith and culture”
Don’t forget how much simple household economics are playing into this.
A Russian future for many in these areas seems so much brighter than a Ukrainian economic one, where the level of corruption would make even a Russian Oligarch blush.
“A Russian future for many in these areas seems so much brighter than a Ukrainian economic one, where the level of corruption would make even a Russian Oligarch blush.”
The corruption of the Ukrainian leadership could not “make even a Russian Oligarch blush,” because in many cases the Ukrainian leadership are “Russian Oligarchs” to the extent they are ethnic Russians or affiliated with organized crime political groups with Russian sympathis and anti-NATO and anti-EU antipithies. Viktor Yanukovich is half Russian, his mother was Russian. He is a career criminal having been convicted of robbery, assault, and rape; and later he engaged in the forgery of court documents in an effort to quash his crminal convictions. Yanukovych appoointed ministers from the pro-Russian minority of Donbas to rule over the Ukranian nation, and used this pro-Russian power bloc to establish and maintain an unprecedented level of official corruption. So, the corruption in the Ukrainian government is the corruption of Russian Oligarchs and their non-Russian criminal cronies.