My Russian-speaking family in the Donbas know the truth about the “separatist” movement. It is Putin’s game and started with agents, bribes, plata o plomo threats, murder, and finally troops. Today in those “independent” republics, administrators are coerced to join the one party which happens to be called UNITED RUSSIA.
Your “family” is part of the problem, just like the Germans who stood by watching as Hitler’s brown-shirts terrorized the Jews.