Not to the extent Russia claims. Donbas was majority in favor of closer ties to Russia. That doesn’t mean the majority of people wanted to be part of Russia so much that they were prepared to have a Russian proxy fight a civil war.
It’s like Scotland... Repeatedly votes in the majority to stay in the UK much to the annoyance of the separatists there, but the majority of Scots want to be in the European Union. If the Scottish nationalists had ten thousand paramilitaries it still wouldn’t make Scotland as a whole gung-ho for a civil war to break away from the UK to join the EU.
Agreed that the solution of an autonomous state was their preference, but they are overwhelmingly of Russian language and heritage and far more pro-Russian than pro Ukranian state. Scotland isn’t really analogous. The UK has not been killing and otherwise persecuting the Scots and Scottish sentiment is not equivalent.