Re: Keep up the Good Work ..... Your Country Needs You ‽ .
I doubt it, but such is geopolitics.
The USSR collapsed due to a combination of overspending on the arms race, and having to subsidise it's client states. Basically the model the EU is facing.
So that left Russia to go it alone, and develop it's own industry, agriculture and economy. And being a rather massive country with a shedload of natural resources, it's been doing pretty well. So it doesn't really need Ukraine. Sanctions have also helped, forcing Russia to become more sef-reliant, and get closer to China.
Meanwhile, Ukraine got royally screwed with it's colour revolution and rush to embrace the EU. So accession means meeting the EU's membership requirements, which are onerous. They're also protectionist. So a large part of Ukraine's economy is agriculture, thanks to it's rich farmland. But it lost it's biggest trading partner, Russia, and got a small quota to trade with the EU in return.
And then there's the teeny problem with Ukraine's far-right wing ultra-nationalists and neo-Nazism. That's pretty much a west vs east thing, with people in the east identifying more as Russian. In the west, people recently celebrated Stepan Bandera, who was a Nazi collaborator who's organisation massacred Poles and Jews. Plus some in the west seem to want to recreate the Kingdom of Galacia-Volhynia. Poland may object.
So basically Ukraine is a basket case, and could be a huge drain on the EU. But that's probably what the US wants. There are a lot of double standards though. The US and NATO station troops on Russia's borders, but Russia gets told it shouldn't move it's own forces inside it's own borders.
But such is politics. My guess is Ukraine's looking for a pretext to take back it's Eastern break-away provinces, which will likely get rather bloody. Especially if Russia intervenes.