Thank you. What did these possibly-anti-Ukrainian-gov't discontented and alienated malefactors (... for lack of a better generalization) do to the Ukrainian government to evoke this response?
-And which ethnicities are we talking about? Talk to me like I'm an American, please.
Nothing wrong with being an American person - it's American politicians and media that most Russians have gripes with.
To add to what Bryant said, I think a short historic trip 100 years back is in order. As with most conflicts around the worlds, this one didn't just spring out of thin air, it has historic roots and had been building up.
I first want you to bear with me and take a look at the following page, which is in Russian. Look at the maps, which show the division in use of Russian language in the East vs. Ukrainian in the West, and the political preferences from the previous elections - Yanukovich had the votes of the East, Yushenko - of the West:
http://yablor.ru/blogs/dve-ukraini/3638493Now, let's go 100 years back to a time shortly before the Revolution on 1917 and take a look at the same region, which was part of the Russian Empire. By that time, the county of Novorossia, was divided into three smaller counties, but their demographic composition didn't change. They were populated by Russians and Russian-speaking people, like Cossacks.
Again, here are two Russian Wikipedia sites, that I want you to take a look at for the sake of the maps:
http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%CD%EE%E2%EE%F0%EE%F1%F1%E8%E9%F1%EA%E0%FF_%E3%F3%E1%E5%F0%ED%E8%FFhttp://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%95%D0%BA%D0%B0%D1%82%D0%B5%D1%80%D0%B8%D0%BD%D0%BE%D1%81%D0%BB%D0%B0%D0%B2%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%B0%D1%8F_%D0%B3%D1%83%D0%B1%D0%B5%D1%80%D0%BD%D0%B8%D1%8FAfter the Revolution, Lenin had a "brilliant" idea of transferring what was Novorossia to that what was to become Ukraine. After a short ("only" 6 years) civil war and some atrocities committed by Petljura bands (who is now a national hero of Western Ukraine), everything quited down and people were mostly going about their business, continuing to speak their language, and generally not feeling very much Ukrainian. But there was no pressure.
A shake-up came during WWII, when another the-now Western-Ukrainian national Hero, Bandera, rose to power, forming troops for German's SS and exterminating all who didn't agree with him, which included Russians, Jews, Poles, much like Petljura did before him.
After WWII the remnants of Bandera bands were ravaging in Ukraine well into 1950s, but then, all became well again, and people went about their business.
After the fall of USSR, someone in the young Ukriane had a "brilliant" idea that Ukraine needs a stronger feel of national unity and identity, and that it also needs to distance itself from the Soviet past. This resulted in strong prosecution of the people of South-East on the language front, and the revival of something anti-Soviet as the new national hero - Bandera. This didn't sit well with people of the East, but was pushed on them anyway, so the pressure was building up. The central and Western regions on the other hand got really taken by the idea. For the American: think Southern states and Northern states during your Civil war.
Remember that less than 100 years passed since the regions were separated from Russia, and there hasn't even been a full generation shift. People still identify themselves strongly with Russia, but during the Soviet times, people just didn't feel that they suddenly ended up in foreign parts.
In the present, you remember that Yanukovich had the support of the South-Eastern regions. During that time the regions had managed to regain some of their rights, like the right to speak the language of the majority. When he was removed by force and replaced by the coup government, the first thing that government did, was to revoke the Constitution, replacing it with a previous version, effectively prohibiting use of Russian language in the regions where you can live for weeks without hearing a word of Ukrainian. For an American: Think that the next president is a Latin American, and as Us already has a large Spanish-speaking part, he imposes a decree that Americans are only allowed to speak Spanish.
This was not seen as a good omen, so, as Briant noted, the protests started, using the same strategy as the Maidan protests in Kiev that lead to the coup government's ascent to power. However, this time, the protesters were labelled as "terrorists" and "separatists", while the same type of protesters in Kiev were "freedom and democracy fighters". The initial protests were not separatist, however. The demands were: federalisation of Ukraine and greater self-governance to the regions. For the Americans: you already have that in the form of the states. This was ridiculed by the coup government, the US and Europe as an impossible form of state (which is a hypocrisy, since many European countries, as well as US are federations).
They were trying to push the genie back into the bottle. But the harder you push, the harder they fight back.