Walter Grant5 said:thanks.
any chance Americans got mixed up in this? diplomatic stuff, anything at all?
Here’s my take based on what I've been following:
Yanukovych, the former Ukrainian president, was tight with Putin, and they had just finalized some sort of economic deal right before the revolution hit. Then, suddenly, the revolution erupts—right in the middle of the Olympics in Russia—and the pro-EU, pro-Western faction comes out on top. Officially, the U.S. claims they didn't interfere, but let's be honest: a revolution of that scale doesn't just happen without some level of outside support.
By the time the last Olympics wrapped up, the old government was long gone. That's when Russia decided to step in, attempting to seize border regions like Crimea and fueling unrest elsewhere.
That’s roughly where I stopped keeping close tabs on everything. From what I can see, the U.S. and the EU are backing the new administration and threatening Russia with sanctions (which could easily backfire during the winter). Honestly, the whole plane crash situation feels like a massive screw-up by one side or the other. Shooting down a plane filled with 300 mostly European civilians is such an extreme, radical move that if it were actually a calculated, planned operation, it's hard to believe the fallout wouldn't be even more catastrophic than what we're seeing.