- Don't forget about Crimean Tatars who live there and i really doubt they would like to either join Russia or be separated from Ukraine. Why? Lots of them were banished from the island by Russian Empire. Though still a lot of Crimean Tatars are living there now. Also they supported Maydan. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crimean_Tatars .
- WIKI says the number of ukrainians living in Crimea - 24.32%, russians - 58%, Crimean Tatars - 12 .
- But russians usually don't remember Dagestan(Russia) or the Chechen Republic(Russia) where the number of russians is less than 5%. Or Belgium with german speaking people .
- Ukrainian regions were a part of the Russian Empire for quite a long time. Why would they not join Russia?
- Crimea is an autonomy, but even now people stimulated by politicians say that they want Ukraine to be a federation. Do they know what is the difference between autonomy and federation?
And in addition. Knowing history of the country is crucial here. If you look at the Russian Imperial Census of 1897 you will see that people living in the eastern part of modern Ukraine were 80-90% ukrainian speaking. And now if you go to the country area of eastern regions you will see lots of ukrainian speaking people.There were 3 man-made famine in Ukrainian SSR conducted by Soviet regime and lots of repressions killed more ukrainians than ukrainians died during the 2 World War. And now guess what Stalin does? He invites russians to the industrial western part of Ukraine. This region required a work force at that time.
So the question is not that simple and clear if you are looking just at big cities like Kharkiv or Donezk.
PS. The myth that Maydan is a question of ukrainians - russians to live in one state is stimulated by politician i believe. It is a question of corrupted government and people who don't want to live in a state with USSR standards.