Political Memes

Ah yes pointing to the completely organic resistance movements that cropped up simultaneously with Russian equipment and Russian soldiers contributing.

I have no idea how you define "completely organic", but there were substantial protests in the Donbas and Odessa regions against Euromaidan. Protesters camped out for months and trade unionists organized. At one point, Right Sector locked a bunch of people in a union hall in Odessa and burned them alive. Many people in Donbas were and are pro-Russia, in the sense that there was (and is) a pro-EU vs. pro-Russia rift in th4 country. There was massive violence against and by a large number of organizations that did not all coordinate together in substantial ways. Trade unionists, anarchists, communists, pro-Russia liberals, ethnic Russians fruatrated by Russophobia, people pissed about Euromaidan, people supportive of Euromaidan, far right segments like Right Sector, pro-Kiev nationalist liberals, etc etc.

This was fairly well-reported during and after these events.

But of course the US psyop'd 80% of the entire country to be in favor of EU membership

The US certainly does fund NGOs to push its agenda and amplify domestic voices that it finds favorable. It is a very boring kind of conspiracy fairly openly. This is why the US started crying foul when Georgia wanted to implement a new law that is basically the equivalent of the US requirement that foreign agenta register themselves. It would mean a ton of NGO staff woild need to register. You could call that a psyop if you wanted to I guess, but I would just call it a standard US influence campaign that takes existing organic sentiment and helps it along while positioning favorable candidates for duture office in better stead than their opponents. Something similar has happened recently in Bangladesh, with a conspicuous crop of NGO affiliates heading transitional teams.

Though, of course, what you saw in Euromaidan was not a play by "the rules", it was a coup and then installation of a pro-EU successor. Nuland is on record talking about who they would be choosing for Ukraine. I thought liberal electoralism was all about the people choosing their candidates through elections, not street fights.

And the strong definitely not russian backed leader said no, I will carry on the true will of the Ukrainian people, which is to be subservient to Russia

This is of course nothing Yanukovych ever said. He certainly responded to Russian pressure and favored economic integration with Russia over thr EU, though, and in typical modern Ukrainian fashion was fairly corrupt. This applies to every Ukrainiam president, though.

And the people unjustly protested and got righteously shot for it.

Euromaidan became a battleground of various opposing forces and was a crucible for far right groups. I recommend reading as many contemporaneous accounts as you can. It was a wild time.

And then the totally not russian tanks rolled in.

? I thought we were talking about Euromaidan and the 2014 coups. Do you mean in Crimea?