[Z]

Originally Posted by Nedusa

Funny that.........we had the same type of situation over here a few years back. One half of Northern Ireland wanted to be part of the Irish Republic the other half remain British. Result stalemate and a concocted Peace accord that doesn't really help either side although some might say the Unionists got a far better deal.

Ukraine similarly will never be allowed to divide along these lines....they need to work through their problems, Russia is never going away any time soon (Half of Ukrainians have Russian blood and family in Russia) and as for the EU well what can Ukraine offer to the EU other than more mass immigration.

So I would be happy if Ukraine stayed where it is and patched up its differences with Russia.

I can't help thinking this current situation in kiev has been inflammed by political tampering from Russia and the West (US)

Ukraine's more or less Russia's bitch. 40 million people need gas supplies from Russia and if Ukraine tries to move towards EU then Russia can and will cut them off and the EU has no way of providing the Ukrainian people any kind of safety net seeing as it imports all its gas from Russia too. The EU wants Ukraine in its sphere of influence because 40 million people adding to the pool of resources is a good thing. Of course this situation has been aggravated by the West tampering in Russia's playground. The same thing would happen if they tried to incorporate Moldova or Belarus. As for Ukraine's government, it's just stuck between a rock and a hard place and has been trying to manoeuvre its way into a bargaining position by playing the field... but you can't do that when your population is so deeply divided and you've made the bold move of nearly signing EU papers and then slam the brakes on when Putin comes round offering concessions that the EU could never provide.