Ukraine's Poroshenko signs EU accord

[Tommy_Carcetti]

34. Once again, you're wrong.

The Maidan protests were huge, ranging up to 400,000 people on some days. And that's not counting the demonstrations that were taking place in other cities in Ukraine (both in the west and the east) at the same time.

The sentiment behind Maidan had the support of the majority of Ukrainian population. Far more Ukrainians favored joining the EU over forming a trade alliance with Russia. Numbers don't lie:

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/more-than-half-of-ukrainians-want-to-join-eu-poll-shows/495753.html

Additionally, at the time of Maidan, Yanukovych was already heavily unpopular and would have likely lost the next election.

http://www.kyivpost.com/content/politics/poll-yanukovych-to-lose-to-opposition-candidates-in-second-round-of-presidential-elections-334239.html

Furthermore, while Poroshenko was not a member of any one political party, he was a very active and vocal supporter of the Maidan protests. The second place finisher was Yulia Tymoshenko, whose Batkivshchyna party was heavily involved in the Maidan protests.

Regarding the situation in the East during the presidential elections, portions of Luhansk and Donetsk provinces not under pro-Russian separatist control did participate in the elections. There were attempts to have the city of Donetsk itself participate in the elections, but the seperatists interfered with the process and destroyed the voting equipment. Ballot boxes were destroyed and marked with placards reading "Trash". So it wasn't the Ukrainian government who was suppressing the vote in the eelcion.

The majority of Ukrainians do not want to be a vassal state of Russia. Period.