Complete B.S.! There was no general ethnic cleansing. Rather, there was the attempt of Kyiv government to reestablish sovereignty over regions that had been military occupied by Russian surrogate forces. Nor did the two regions vote for independence. There were mock referenda under Russian military occupation. And even with that, the vote was for autonomy within a united Ukraine. And it was the Russian who balked, refusing to the conduct the agreed referenda because Kyiv insisted that it be done under Ukrainian auspices. The Russian excuses to justify their invasion is nothing but a pile of straw.
Bullcrap. When you throw a coup, you do not inherit sovereignty over the possessions of the national government you killed off.
Everybody in that old territory has the same right to grab what they can as well. And they can ask for help from people who share their geopolitical interests.
And the reason the Kiev junta sent the Svoboda and Right Sector militias out east? To get the surly street thugs who installed them out of town ASAP. You don’t need them hanging around starting to watch what YOU are doing.
Brownshirts, early Bolsheviks, Early Chinese communists... they always want to get rid of the street movement that installed them as soon as they can.
That’s just how it is, sport.