Say what you will but just as all the poor people in the world want into the US all the poor nations in Europe want into the EU. It’s a fact. And they damn sure don’t want the born again phony nationalist Putin bossing them around.
The people in Eastern Ukraine do want closer ties to Russia, which is why they voted for Viktor Yanukovych to begin with. Those in the western portion of the country didn’t like that they lost the election and that Yanukovych was signing trade deals with Russia, so they threw a fit and started burning down the capital.
Yanukovych has democratically elected, primarily by his power base in eastern Ukraine which does want closer ties to Russia.
The people in the eastern part of Ukraine (the Crimea) don’t want to be governed by the people of western Ukraine.