A few days ago, Ukraine held its first parliamentary elections since the February Revolution, resulting in a big win for the pro-European camp. The ruling party led by Ukrainian President Borishenko received 23.11 TP3T of votes and is set to become the largest party in the parliament, while the People's Front party led by Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk received 21.21 TP3T of votes. According to the statistics, the pro-European camp received more than 701 TP3T of votes, while the opposition party led by Yanukovych received only 7.61 TP3T of votes, and the trend of "backwardness to Europe" in Ukraine has intensified as never before in the wake of the outbreak of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

Voters cast their ballots live as Ukrainian parliamentary elections begin on October 26, 2014 local time in Kiev, Ukraine.

In March of this year, Crimea was voted "into" the territory of the Russian Federation. Since then, the U.S.-Russia conflict has continued, and this series of events has resulted in the marginalization of pro-Russian forces in Ukraine, and has made the current parliamentary elections the most "westernized" since Ukraine's independence, and it is worth mentioning that the Communist Party of Ukraine (CPPU) may not even be able to cross the five-percent threshold, and will be squeezed out of the parliament.

Ukraine was once an important strategic depth for Russia, and historically Ukraine has had very good relations with Russia. After the collapse of the Soviet Union and into the early 20th century, the friendly and cooperative relationship between the two countries once served as a model for Russia and other former Soviet republics. An example of this is the appointment by Russian President Vladimir Putin in May 2001 of Chernomyrdin, then Deputy Prime Minister, as Russia's Ambassador to Ukraine. The fact that such a heavyweight has become an ambassador can be seen as a sign of Russia's high regard for Ukraine. It has also been reported in the media that President Kuchma of Ukraine met with Putin as many as 40 times during his four-year presidency.

However, with the rise to power of anti-Russian forces in western Ukraine in the 2005 elections, Ukraine and Russia have begun to drift further apart. In recent years, Ukrainian-Russian relations have taken an even steeper turn for the worse, and the deterioration in political relations has been accompanied by economic disagreements.

Former Ukrainian President Yanukovych is undoubtedly a crucial figure in the whole process of Ukraine's drift away from Russia. As a representative pro-Russian figure, Yanukovych's rise to power seemed to safeguard Russia's interests in Ukraine, but high-level domestic divisions and widespread civil opposition led to Yanukovych loading the gap between Russia and the European Union at every turn.

2013surname NianOn November 22, the Ukrainian Prime Minister announced the suspension of the Associated States Agreement with the EU. This led to a series of popular demonstrations in solidarity with the EU, protests that lasted until February 2014 and led to the tragic deaths of dozens of people. Ultimately, the series of protests sparked a huge political wave within Ukraine, which ultimately led to the ouster of President Yanukovych.

In fact, the reason why Yanukovych is pro-Russian is nothing more than a forced expedient. Due to the antipathy of Europe and the United States to him, in order to maintain the current political situation, he can only reach out to Russia for assistance. Domestically, Ukraine is facing a crisis of depleted domestic finances and a sliding economy, with a domestic and foreign debt of up to $57 billion in debt, and its economic capacity is not trusted by the international community; the economic development of the east and west is extremely unbalanced, with a per capita GDP of 42,068 Ukrainian hryvnia ($4,748) in the east and in the western industrial center of the Lviv region, the per capita GDP is only 20,490 hryvnia ($2,312) in the western industrial center of the Lviv region, less than half of that in the east.

To add insult to injury, Ukraine has been very dependent on Russia. Seven of Ukraine's top ten private companies are headquartered in the eastern part of the country, and these companies are heavily dependent on Russia; Ukraine is self-sufficient in only 30% of natural gas, and 70 is heavily dependent on imports, the vast majority of which relies on Russia, which provides natural gas to Ukraine at a 70% discount, saving Ukraine $7 billion a year. Therefore, even if the wave of domestic opposition to Russia has been rising and falling, but Yanukovych from the beginning to the end of the close to Russia.

In March of this year, Crimea was "incorporated" into the Russian Federation after a vote. Since then, the conflict between Ukraine and Russia has continued. Pictured in Moscow, Russia, March 2, 2014, local time, people show solidarity with Ukrainians and Russian-speaking people in Crimea against the new Ukrainian government and support for Vladimir Putin to send troops to Ukraine.

Since the fall of Yanukovych and fled to Russia, his rotten and corrupt life has been exposed by the media one after another, and his luxury villas and gold-plated toilets have become the reason for the Ukrainian people to hate Russia, while Yanukovych's image of cowardice, opportunism and corruption has directly damaged the political image of the pro-Russian faction. In this regard, even the ethnic Russians in the eastern part of Ukraine are not ashamed of it, shouting "criminal Yanukovych".

If it was the fall of the pro-Russian Yanukovych regime that was the trigger for the stalemate and deterioration of Ukrainian-Russian relations, then Russia's annexation of Crimea was a bombshell in the relationship between the two countries. For decades, analysts have also noted the course of Russian-Ukrainian relations towards deterioration, but perhaps none of them expected that the two countries could have such an extremely serious political conflict as they have now.

Western support for the anti-Russian government in Ukraine is actually solidifying the disconnect and alienation of the Ukrainian political class and population from Russia. The Russians' weapon in this struggle is almost exclusively natural gas, lacking sufficient economic power, political influence, and especially ideological and better propaganda resources to attract Ukrainians. Consequently, in the development of Russian-Ukrainian relations since then, Russian power in Ukrainian politics has been marginalized step by step.

For Russia, this is the least expected outcome. Although Putin is a master of power and calculation, he has had his moments. Putin does not want Ukraine to join the European Union, Yanukovych complied, but this is the opposition to seize the handle, turned into the best mobilization order to hit Yanukovych. The worst thing for Russia is that the pro-Russian camp has been hit hard by this.

Now that pro-European political forces have become dominant in Ukraine and pro-Russian political forces have been gradually marginalized, it has become even more difficult for Russia to influence Ukraine. There are only a few ways for Russia to do this. The first is to re-establish the pro-Russian faction, but this will take too long, and the Ukrainians have already developed a strong national hatred towards Russia, so it is difficult for the pro-Russian faction to become a climate for a while. The second is economic sanctions, but except for gas and oil, Russia's means are limited, and also tend to increase the Ukrainian national antipathy toward Russia, but will be counterproductive.

On the contrary, if Ukraine joins the EU, not only will Ukraine have easier access to Western financial and technical support, but also the democratic and free life in the West will make Ukrainian youth aspire to it, and the affluent life in the West attracts Ukrainian people's attention. In addition, by joining the EU, Ukrainians will have more opportunities for development and Ukraine will be free from its long-standing dependence on Russia.

There is one small detail that can serve as an informative judgment on the direction of the evidence in Ukraine. After the fall of former President Yanukovych, the population discovered his luxurious residence, but no one vandalized it; instead, it was preserved as a history lesson. This could also be a rise of a national spirit in Ukraine towards true self-reliance. At some point, perhaps neither Russia nor Europe or the United States will want to turn Ukraine into a pawn in the struggle between international political powers.

For now, at least, Russia has lost Ukraine for good. Russia's annexation of Crimea provides the Ukrainian government with a legitimate factual basis and will generalize Russia's "acts of aggression" to provide greater legitimacy to the new regime in the country, of which the Ukrainian parliamentary elections are an expected precursor.