I fail to understand why those in the areas in question who spoke Russian and wanted to be united with Russia, just didn’t MOVE TO RUSSIA AND LEAVE THE TRUE UKRANIANS ALONE.
Both have somewhat of a gripe, and both should find a solution that does NOT KILL AND MAIM.
They, BOTH SIDES, have an opportunity to make things right.
And it is more the feckless United Nations problem than ours.
But they will NOT settle it without more bucks from us.
That’s similar to asking why Democrats don’t leave red states (and vice versa), why illegal immigrants don’t go back to their home countries, or why Protestants in Northern Ireland don’t go back to Scotland.
In fact, some years ago Putin started a program to entice Ukrainian ethnic Russians to immigrate to Russia.
At first, the program was popular in Russia and with the immigrants. Some years saw immigration of over 100k pro-Russian immigrants from Ukraine. But... tensions soon developed. Immigrants developed an entitlement mentality, often claiming the Russian gov’t was not delivering on promises of support. Some Russian citizens, OTOH, felt the newcomers were treated preferentially to themselves, the immigrants were unwanted competition for jobs, and so on.
Gee... Where have we seen this sort of thing, before?