Basically everything east of the Dnipner river/Kyiv is about to belong to Russia wholesale. Lyiv (remember all the countries moving their embassies there a few weeks ago) will be the new capital of Ukraine. This could have been EASILY avoided. All the dumb bastards had to do was to commit not to join NATO, not host western weapons or bases, and recognize the separatists provinces. Fuck they could have just made them autonomous regions and Putin would likely been ok with it. But no, NATO and the EU had to be difficult and refused to take no for an answer. NATO had to promise membership to Ukraine knowing it would never let them in. Western dumbfuckery. That is the lesson learned here. EDIT: Had to fix typo.