Ukraine Continues the Crisis

Subscriber only piece from Jane's Foreign Report titles Ukraine's President Pushes the Panic Button does a good job of providing background in a nutshell.

Their forecast?

The main winner from the crisis is Tymoshenko. In early elections, her bloc
would be likely to come a close second to the Party of Regions and, in an
ensuing Orange Coalition, she would become prime minister.

However, Yanukovych could still turn the tables on his Orange Coalition
rivals and consolidate his position as the key political power in Ukraine.

Should the crisis continue unabated, the potential for violence would also
grow and with this would come the risk of wider societal division and
widespread domestic instability.

During my time in Ukraine I was constantly frustrated by the apathy the west showed toward the region. It is a critically important area that will unfortunately be recognized only when things go terribly wrong.

For anybody that has lost faith in the US political system, just be aware that it is a paragon of virtue in every way when compared to Ukraine.