“natural rights of the people of the Donbas”
https://jordanrussiacenter.org/news/do-people-in-donbas-want-to-be-liberated-by-russia/#.ZD2Z1s7MJEY
“In a free and fair referendum held throughout the Donbas — under international supervision and with impartial, transparent and inclusive voting rules that allowed those displaced since 2014 to vote — the majority would be likely to vote to remain in Ukraine.”
Yup. The only coup there’s been in Ukraine since 2000 (if you ignore the Kremlin assassination attempt on Yuschenko) is the contingent of Russians who stormed the Donetsk civilian administration buildings on behalf of separatists and without asking a single resident of the city outside of their paramilitary buddies, voted themselves into power. A regime that has NEVER submitted its rule over the region to a democratic process.
Nine years and counting without any electoral legitimacy.
The USA did nothing more than select an INTERIM leadership that was replaced in a matter of months by a monitored national election, which the LDPR refused to participate in.