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.
Hey, hey, hey, and Yanukovych negotiated the deal with the EU and was for it until Putin said, “I forbid it.” Then he became Putin’s catamite, not unlike a certain FReeper spouting pro-Putin rubish. So the Ukrainians overthrew the traitor Yanukovych.