Victor Yanukovitch was corrupt puppet of Moscow. He was in no means president of the people. Only russians supported him, not ukrainians.
If he was only supported by the ethnic Russians (who comprise less than 15% of the Ukrainian population), then how come he received more than 50% of the total votes? The election was certified as free and fair by all of the international observers. So you can't say that the ethnic Russians rigged the polls, all across Ukraine.
Turns out he was on my ignore list from before. I don't remember when I put him there, so it must have been a while back. A case of re-activation?
In any case, Yanukovich was not even pro-Russian, he was pro-Yanhukovich. EU association agreement was his idea in the first place, but he started to backpedal when he realised the price tag for that association was a complete break-up of economic relations with Russia (over 60% of Ukraine's GDP) and massive unemployment, as EU would not budge on the 3-way agreement suggested by Russia, demanding the Ukraine choose EU or else... As Yanukovich tried to back out, "or else" was implemented.
Shelling of residential areas of Donetsk continued yesterday. While Poroshenko releaved the governor of Donetsk region of his post.
http://lenta.ru/news/2015/06/11/fired/
If I was at Russian leadership place I would have put in place a Maskirovka to cover up a military support to ethnic Russian inhabitant of Eastern Ukraine just as Russian government was accused to do. I also think that from a Russian military and political point of view it would make sense - a lot - to provide such support to help secure a safe ground with to buffer a potential hostile rival on its very doorstep.
Yes, it would be very foolish for Russia not to contain the situation on its doorstep somehow. Last year, several artillery shells flew into Russian territory, killing several Russian citizens. If USA was faced with the same scenario, they'd gone ballistic (literally). Russia is responding in a very moderated way - by diplomacy.
I guess will learn if Russian special ops operated there, once the situation is resolved. What I find stupid, are the claims of the Russian regular army operating there. There are already many Soviet-trained officers from Donetsk and Lugansk, who know their surroundings, and there are several arms depots left from Soviet times. What they'd need is intel, and that can be done with no feet on the ground.