In what way? The issue is not black and white in Ukraine. The people who work in the industrial east have a lot to lose if Putin puts some kind of unofficial embargo on them, but the west has failed to make any economic headway and feels this deal with the EU may alleviate their troubles, (as I said, I think many just want to leave Ukraine altogether).
Of course Texas and California, while both being states, do have economies that run differently, but you don’t have the same dynamic that you do with Ukraine. America is (for now), the most economically powerful nation in the world. We pretty much set the trend for trade worldwide, and we don’t have anything comparable to the situation where we are being torn between two vastly economically superior powers.
Ukraine is hobbled by its internal problems. Compare it to Belarus. Belarus has many of the same disadvantages economically. Its not very successful, but General Lukashenko keeps the country ticking over because the people are largely of a Russian mindset with little division among them, and the entire country has gained as Russia has rebuilt itself.
Ukraine is instead racked with political strife and division, a tense language barrier between east and west, religious and cultural differences, a democracy which doesn’t function very effectively, and trade ties with Russia that often fail to benefit the westerners.
In retrospect, Ukraine was a poorly conceived country after the collapse of the Soviet Union. They drew the borders wrong.
Industrial east has a lot to lose because they are not competitive with EU countries. But if Ukraine walls itself off from competition, how will the industry ever become capable of competing globally? If you look at countries like Poland and Hungary in the 1990s, they did not appear to have a chance of competing with German or EU companies. But Poland and Hungary
joined the European Union and both found that economic integration, which forced their industries and exporters to become more efficient and competitive, helped grow and strengthen their economies — promoting significant increases in living standards.