It's just been announced that the Ukrainian Prime Minister, Mykola Azarov and his government have tendered their resignation to President Viktor Yanukovych.
This follows the Parliament annulling recent legislation that outlawed protests. Over the past week protests about these laws have become the main focus of demonstrations that spread from the capital, Kiev, to other cities, including in the east of the country where ethnic Russians predominate as a result of policies by Stalin and later Soviet leaders.
The protests were initially sparked by the refusal of Yanukovych to ratify an Association Agreement with the EU in favor of short term loans and the promise of cheap gas from Putin. In geo-political terms both Ukraine and Belarus are now the only buffer states between Russian and the rest of Europe. Putin has been active in interfering with the governments in both former states of the USSR.