Ukraine has been historically divided into pro-West Ukraine in the west and pro-Russia Ukraine in the east. I think the only peaceful resolution to this conflict is having two independent states.
Actually there is (or at least use to be) an idea of "progress". The hope was that people in the predominantly Russian-speaking Eastern regions would eventually "convert" politically to a pro-European direction because a primary driver of the pro-Russian leanings (other than cultural factors) was a positive memory of industrialization by the USSR which brought them jobs and a better way of life. The idea was that the older generation who remembered the glory of the USSR would eventually become replaced with a less Russia-centric one. Unfortunately this hasn't exactly played out to the extent it was hoped for.