Ukrainians would rather suffer for a little while than join Russia. The ones that want to join Russia are either delusional or not Ukrainians.
I’m sure many Ukrainians would rather die than have anything to do with the country that caused the Holodomor.
But poverty and cold are going to become a powerful force: especially in East Ukraine where the industry is locked into Russian interests.
The way to deal with it is to get ahead of it: to encourage foreign investments and to set off Ukrainian debt.
If this doesn’t happen then East Ukraine will (I predict) fall further into Putin’s sphere of influence.
Russia is already taking huge tracts of territory