This is interesting:
Ukraine's interim leadership pledged to put the country back on course for European integration now that Moscow-backed Viktor Yanukovich has been ousted from the presidency, while the United States warned Russia against sending in its forces.
But they recognize that Russia looms too large to simply turn away from economic relations with Russia:
As rival neighbors east and west of the former Soviet republic said a power vacuum in Kiev must not lead to the country breaking apart, acting President Oleksander Turchinov said late on Sunday that Ukraine's new leaders wanted relations with Russia on a "new, equal and good-neighborly footing that recognizes and takes into account Ukraine's European choice".
Will this be enough to hold off the Russians?
I'll admit, after voters put Yanukovich into power I was worried about Ukraine's future in the West.
And when the government succumbed to Russian threats to abandon a pending deal with the European Union, I despaired.
But the people of Ukraine didn't want to accept this major decision in defiance of the wishes of the majority.
And the leaders either would not or did not have the means to unleash sufficient force to crush this expression of defiance.
But Russia is still looming over Ukraine. And Putin still pines for the old Soviet (or Czarist) borders.
So the task has gone from defending a square to defending an entire nation.
