The problem with all of these maps of who speaks different languages and who voted for Yanukyvich and so on is that everyone has a brain and can decide an opinion for themselves regardless of what language they speak and so on
You can try to force people into categories of your own preference but human nature is just not that simple
I hear Yanukyvich is in Minsk and speculation is that Putin wants to make him the puppet President of Ukraine
But Yanukyvich’s day is long over. That was before the bloody slog in LPR/DPR, the thousands of holy martyrs on both sides, the hardening of attitudes, the change of Lukashenko in nearby Belarus from elected president to dictator with rigged elections, young people in Belarus leaving in droves, Putin becoming ruler-for-life in Russia in rigged constitutional voting, and on and on.
Things change, opinions change. Poland in the EU is even more prosperous and strong now than it was in 2004.
Just look around here. At one time George W. Bush was pretty popular around here.
How popular is he now?
Thanks for those maps. I was just looking at a copy of the 2004 electoral map and wondering how to stick it on FR.
Whatever the post war settlement is, it will needs to be robust against artillary sniping and incursion. A political boundary along a natural barrier like the Dneiper would seem like part of the solution. Especially as Russia will want to control the waterway.
But the likely demographic/russophile split doesn’t quite follow the line of the Dneiper. Wonder how it will be solved.