No they weren’t, and i wasn’t on Ukraine’s side in 2014.
Since 2019, things have been different, apart from some holdouts on all sides. Peace processes are naturally tough because of intransigence though... It’s no reason to throw in the towel and launch a military operation.
There were still skirmishes between paramilitaries for years after John Major kicked off peace talks. It was years before the loyalists disarmed fully. Even now there’s still the odd hardcore group trying to start the Troubles off. If we thought like Putin, we’d have funded the agitators and then invaded the Six Counties after a few years of de-escalation on the crap basis that a nonexistent genocide was about to kick off.
I think you are insincere or didn’t pay attention. Ze tried to proceed with Minsk very early and then got an astroturf riot from the American proxies. Then he converted to Nuland’s idea that amnesty for the rebels is impossible and no right to vote for Donbas because it is a Russian plot to break it away. There was nothing to talk about afterwards.
The very fact that Minsk was concluded puts a lie to your idea of Russian expansionism. Putin could have it all without a fight in 2014.
Your devotion to the will of the people is phony as well regarding Crimea where everybody and their dog don’t want to be a part of Ukraine.