Wanted: Proof that what happened in Ukraine actually constituted a "western sponsored coup."

[Tommy_Carcetti]

43. Except that doesn't account for the lack of force or urgency surrounding his departure.

And that's a key component of a coup as the word is defined.

I will concede that the impeachment following Yanukovych's fleeing the country was rushed and had some technical issues with it. But the situation facing Ukraine on February 22, 2014 wasn't something that was really contemplated under the Ukrainian consititution, for better or worse. The president had fled the country (oddly enough, with oil paintings and antique furniture in hand). There was a power vacuum and the country was in an extremely vulnerable state. The country could simply not afford a long, drawn out impeachment process of a president who wasn't even in the country.

But again, coups typically involve violence and they are organized by small groups, not protests of hundreds of thousands of people.

What you see on the video was a man who cared more about his oil paintings than his country. So that should be considered his letter of resignation by default.