reward in a sense after it rejected an association agreement with the european union. yanukovych accepted the slight, igniting protests then fled his country. then putin annexed crimea. in recent years he has tried to get the president of ukraine volodymyr zelensky to make a deal on the eastern ukrainian region of donbas, home of the highest proportion of russian speakers in the country and where russian army irregulars have been fomenting an insurgency. he tried to get the germans to accept a referendum on secession. to the liberal reformer gosh involve russian leaders have regarded ukraine as fundamentally tied to moscow. ukraine's first two presidents while asserting the country's new found independence were careful not to break too sharply with moscow. according to a census conducted in 2001 almost 30% of the