Putin admitted that there were Russian special forces there undercover. Many locals also said that as well, that the protesters had Russian accents and no idea where they were or how to get around.
What sources are you using for info/stats?
I'm not a polisci student/researcher, and my Google-Fu in this realm is yielding some rather questionable answers. Not really sure what are trustworthy sources for a part of the world which I am so far removed from.
For the raw numbers I've used Wikipedia, my own comparative government and politics textbooks, as well as a video made by John Green about the subject.
The history of the region is personal knowledge. In HS and college I've studied the area extensively. International Relations major with a specialization in Eastern European Affairs.
fun fact: I was listening to story on this at work and a journalist asked a pro-russian rebel the name of the town they had just occupied the local gov't building in and he had no idea where he even was, so local movement I doubt it.
You cannot draw a conclusion about a large mass of people from one individual's statements.
Not that I have any doubt that the pro-Russian protesters are indeed infiltrated by Russian special forces (if not all of them are from Russia). Russia did it in Georgia, did it in Crimea, thinking that they aren't doing it now is naive to the extreme.
The west has for around a decade, in violation of agreements signed regarding the disoloution of the soviet union, been encroaching upon and encircling russia. They have expanded the EU and NATO, and despite promising to resepct the rights and soverignty of ukraine spent by public admission over 5Bn USD over like a decade (500Mn a year) influencing ukrainian politics, and now the EU is trying to absorb ukraine, not just because of expansionism, but because they need to create another cold war so that they have some reason to justify their existence in the face of widespread contempt for the EU, it's institutions and it's policies.
Putin is not a retard, he knows all of this, he knows that America and Europe will make him into an enemy no matter what he does, especially because of what he does, for opposing their intervention, their bombings of all these countries. So what will he try to do, he will try to also take as much as he can, not just to prevent his enemies (by their own decleration) from gaining them, but because they are russian, and he has a hero complex.
It is important to note the financial gains in this as well, in terms of military expenditure (if the EU was to spend at GDP% rates of america) and hydrocarbons alone we are probably talking about over 1TN USD in financial gains probably mainly to american companies. Then we have all sorts of sensitive industrial equipment, how much financial gains will be in this, this year the 3rd world overtook the west interms of GDP PPP, for the first time in 400 years, for the first time in about 200years america is no longer the largest economy measured by GDP PPP. How long will it be before the established western industrial powers are swept away by developing producers, look at the prices of stuff for instance from Huewei, compare that to cisco! There is alot at stake here, the political systems of europe, the power of the people of the EU institutions, the wealth of the western industrialists, and military-industrial complex.
Putin is trying to retake russian parts of ukraine and/or prevent EU/NATO ascension while at the same time not scaring the other border states into similar actions, the goal here geostrategically speaking is for russia to minimize net western gains along its border regions, and to try and maintain the buffer zone which was supposedly protected by treaty, and buy time for russia to regain it's strength.
People of Russian descent only make up around 17% of the Ukrainian population. And Russian is the first language of only 29% of the population, which is far from the majority. It should also be pointed out that the main reason why the number is even as high as it is, is because the Russian government actively suppressed the Ukrainian language while promoting Russian for many, many years.
As a Ukrainian here, thanks for clarifying this to everyone.
In Kiev it is actually a bit rude to use Russian in places of business, if you are in Ukraine speak Ukrainian. My grandmother actually becomes hostile when she is addressed in Russian.
The Russian language is not that different from Ukrainian, but there is a distinction. Its kind of like the difference between Spanish and Portuguese.
Since this is not America, it is not as absurd for the possibility for people to regularly know multiple languages. America seems to be the oddball in the world when it comes to multilingual usage.
With my bit of biased opinion on Putin's invasion, I'm going to ask rhetorical questions: Who exactly is he protecting the Russian population from? What about the indigenous Crimean population? Why are some of the people protesting for Russia on behalf of Ukraine in Ukraine not citizens of Ukraine(Its almost as if they bought off vagrants from neighboring countrys with vodka to incite unrest.)?