This Map Explains Why Ukraine Is So Divided Over Russia

[FarCenter]

After an emergency Parliamentary session Saturday, Russia approved President Vladimir Putin’s request to send troops into the turbulent nation of Ukraine.

The move came after Russia had already started taking hold of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula, an autonomous parliamentary republic within Ukraine. Crimea has been largely pro-Russia, while other parts of Ukraine would like to be closer to the European Union.

Here's a helpful map that explains Ukraine’s “East-West divide":

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/this-map-explains-why-russia-is-invading-crimea-2014-3

[Brickbat]

1. This map gets closer to some of the alliances that people in the region -- and outside of it --

feel quite strongly. Add in political parties and you have something that people in the U.S. have little to no experience with. It's language and ethnicity and heritage and politics, few of which break along the same lines, on top of whatever personal gut feelings a person might have.

[pa28]

2. That is useful. I've been trying to find a map like this.

Easy to see where Putin might want to make his partition.

[independentpiney]

3. Very good map nt

[Cha]

4. thank you for this, FarCenter..

[Ilsa]

5. This answers my questions about

Segmentation amongst Ukrainians. It's easier to understand that there would be some pro-Russian rebels and factions.

[TeamPooka]

6. This is the map you'd get from the Auto Club if you wanted to plan a trip to Quagmire. nt

[joshcryer]

7. The problem is that it's a regionally locked map.

The actual ethnic background of the populations are not by any means simply relegated to a given region. Some of the eastern big industrial cities have large ethnic Ukrainian populations.