Maybe they didn't want to be part of Ukraine, either, and that why the created their own republic.
https://www.crisisgroup.org/europe-central-asia/eastern-europe/ukraine/254-rebels-without-cause-russias-proxies-eastern-ukraine
The result is three distinct groups in the east: a proxy leadership financially and politically dependent on Moscow but with no clear policy goals or local base of its own; ideological separatists whose hopes of joining Russia have been dashed; and the majority of the population, worn out by war and frustrated at the seeming indifference of both Kyiv and Moscow.
The point is that is a mess we should stay out of it with no clear moral distinction between the sides.
This was not a situation created by Putin or Russia. It was mess created by failed leadership in Ukraine.
Yes, poor Pukey. He’s a victim.
With a demented senile puppet in the White House, he has to step up his plans for additional aggression, attack Ukraine and try to rebuild his KGB sadness seeing the Soviet empire reborn.
Poor, poor Pukey.