Well Ukrainian army is pulling back and is waiting for the Russians to start firing.

The problem there is that both coutries have similary sized land armies and one of the problems is that most military officers in russian army are of Ukraininan descent and this means they might just annex the whole state not just crimea.

O and I would change the name of the thread to Russian invasion of Ukraine and not civilar war since Russia has nothing to do with Ukrain besides their navy base at Sevastopol that in no danger at all.
Well Ukrainian army is pulling back and is waiting for the Russians to start firing.

The problem there is that both coutries have similary sized land armies and one of the problems is that most military officers in russian army are of Ukraininan descent and this means they might just annex the whole state not just crimea.

O and I would change the name of the thread to Russian invasion of Ukraine and not civilar war since Russia has nothing to do with Ukrain besides their navy base at Sevastopol that in no danger at all.

Well, western media, euronews included, are pretty much our fan club. No surprise there. And I'm not surprised some people believe propaganda without any doubt, it's because they want to believe.
"Russia invaded Ukraine. Quick, stop them before they'll go for Germany"

But come on. Nothing is that simple.

You're talking like Ukraine is a monocultural (is that a word?) state. Different people live there. Of different cultural backgrounds. They all want different things. Same goes for Russia, by the way.

Open wikipedia at least. Crimea is an Autonomous Republic, they have their own constitution, large part of population is of Russian descent.

Please, do at least a bit of research besides opening your local newspaper.

It doesn't bother me when people say they don't like Russia and give logical reasons, based on actual knowledge. What bothers me is when people say "Russia is evil and must be nuked" because some hot chick on euronews says so.

Oh, joy of Euronews. I like how they go: "and now we'll take an interview of this absolutely random Ukrainian person." And then this random Ukrainian person starts answering in pretty nice English.

Maybe Russia's mass media should stop calling new government and its supporters "nazis" and stop spreading lies how russian language was banned? I agree that cancelling the law about regional languages at this time was stupid and pointless, but noone has taken away the right of every person to talk any language they like. It is utter and complete BS. Oh, and give us back our ex-president. I have a few questions for him tet-a-tet. That is without bodyguards. I promise to not hurt him.

I remember when even the "respected" media in Germany went out of their way how "Russian forced invaded Georgia". When I found out that they simply "forgot to mention" the fact that Georgian forces had been shelling Russian villages to provoke a conflict, I lost even the last bit of trust in mainstream media.

And that's why I don't trust Russian media either. "Nazis" is a pretty manipulative label (by the way, I don't remember them using 'nazi' word, but they might, yes),
but some people did get carried away.

Like this nice man asking to take his weapons back from him:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vol4bn3TMck

Or this good people politely talking to the road patrol:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvqkM80Eck0 (Warning: coarse language)

Or people who crusified birds.

There's a lot of propaganda from both sides right now. And it will continue for a long time and will only get worse.
It saddens me to see people buying this propaganda from either side so easily.

It's frustration how hard it is to get some unbiased information. At the moment the only way is to listen to all sides and filter the obviously wrong data and try to find common ground.

It's a bit easier if you can understand Russian and Ukrainian, but maybe not very much. More quantity of information, but not so much quality.

But I still encourage everyone to at least try to do their own research or just drop the topic. Personally I'd like the former.

Well its hard to find any data that is not biased either from Russian view since Crimea population ist 2/3 russian descent or western view - military invasion.

The thing is I think just Russia probably a bit overstrestched the 99 year lease contract for sevastopol military base between Ukraine and Russia with sending 6000 troops there and that can be in part interpretated as an invasion.

It does not help that the Duma passed a law that allows annexation off regions in foreign countries where people with russian descent live. Since that means very stretched that Russia cann now annex parts of Serbia for example.

At the end the result of this will probably be war between Ukraine and Russia. Another useless bloodshed.

It is bad also that this was compared in western media to be the same as what happened at the beginning of WW2 when Hitler put German soldiers into polish uniforms and let them attack a german border radio station to provoke the war - this was said last night on CNN by some retired US general.

I don't like us sending 6000 troops there either, because of that. No mater what Russia will always be the bad guy in this situation.

I personally don't like Crimea to be annexed by Russia, not because I don't like Crimea, but exactly the opposite.
I'd like them to remain Autonomous Republic. Or Independent State even. I don't wish them horrors of our government.

But I understand that people there are afraid that new Ukrainian government might deprive their status (are they right to be afraid - is another question)

I'd like to think that 6000 troops are there to ensure safety of people so that referendum will not be cancelled (I'm sure that's what our media will tell us), but I understand that's mostly a pretext.

So, situation is very complex and personally I don't like it one bit.

Predictions based on conjecture postulations:

Russia can't stay in Ukraine, so Crimea will split from Ukraine and become an independent country, (backed by Russia, of course.)

In the aftermath, we will get a new (smaller) Ukraine, which will be very hostile to Russia and very pro-West. Ukrainians will obviously be pissed that Russia invaded and split up their country.

Russia has sealed Ukraine's fate... with its own folly.

I think not. Russia has already passed laws that allow annexation of Crimea. The same as they did for Sout Osettia last time since US did not move then and it wont move no. And Obamas there will be consequences doesn hold sind Europe depends on Russian gas and oil imports and cant get pulled in to a war because of this.

Either way, (a new country or annexation,) we will have a new Ukraine that will be very, very anti-Russia and pro-West. Ukrainians will understandably be really, really upset at Russia because Russia has just invaded their country and, whatever the outcome may be, Russia will take away a chuck of Ukraine's lands. Unless Russia intends to stay in Ukraine forever, Russia will most certainly have to deal with a hostile neighbor in the aftermath.

I dont know what will happen but bear in mind that a big part of Russian army officers is of Ukranian descent - a left over from Soviet Union so that might push things even fuerther than we think.

And its funny that Russia used the excuse from Star Wars: To Unsure Peace and Prosperity as the reason for invasion.

I just hope the US will stay out of it... because one wrong move, and we'll have nukes flying all over.