You fail to understand the regional history. Ukraine up to Kiev was essentially Russian until the Stalinist era, then joined with what is now west Ukraine after WW II. The sovereign nation of Ukraine that emerged after the breakup of USSR essentially lost its sovereignty after the Maidan coup in 2014, becoming a failed state and a vassal…
You fail to understand the regional history. Ukraine up to Kiev was essentially Russian until the Stalinist era, then joined with what is now west Ukraine after WW II. The sovereign nation of Ukraine that emerged after the breakup of USSR essentially lost its sovereignty after the Maidan coup in 2014, becoming a failed state and a vassal of the US. So, the peoples of Donbas and Crimea all chose Russia.
You fail to understand the regional history. Ukraine up to Kiev was essentially Russian until the Stalinist era, then joined with what is now west Ukraine after WW II. The sovereign nation of Ukraine that emerged after the breakup of USSR essentially lost its sovereignty after the Maidan coup in 2014, becoming a failed state and a vassal of the US. So, the peoples of Donbas and Crimea all chose Russia.
Putin just realized their ambitions.
Oh, I understand the joy Ukrainians felt under Soviet domination very well:
https://www.history.com/news/ukrainian-famine-stalin