Yes, parts of the Ukraine are heavily Russian.
What many don’t understand, is that some of them consider themselves Ukranian, not Russian, while others have the opposite view.
I say separate the goats and the sheep, based on desires. This is very similar to Bosnia Herzegovina, and Yugoslavia’s overall breakup. It wasn’t just a matter of ethnicity; it was also based on religious and cultural preference. The Ukraine fighting to get the Eastern Donbass and Crimea back will be a never-ending effort, as the majority of those places’ populations don’t want to be a part.
But again, there are surprisingly many ethnic Russians in the Ukraine who want to remain in the nation called Ukraine.
After the breakup of the Soviet Union, there were simmering resentments along some fringe areas between these nations. Use this time to sort some of it out.
I say separate the goats and the sheep, based on desires.
In this area of the world, pretty much by reason of geography, there have been the most brutal invasions and conquests that have ever occurred. They think different than we do, because we have been part of trading cultures - the "west" broadly speaking. Government to us is a transaction decided by a vote. On an inland plane, government is the exercise of power and not much else. So we are seeing how the sheep and goats get separated with echoes from WWI and the years following when borders were still not yet drawn.