Re: Presumbly the UK has similar plans
It's likely that before 2014, these figures would have been very different and shown less support for breaking away and less threat to ethnic Russians. So the line that Russia is saving the Donbas region from Ukrainian atrocities and that its people want to be part of Russia is complete bull.
Or it's politics. You're absolutely right about different opinions and polling results pre and post coup. How Ukraine decided to settle those differences is easily apparent from footage that came out of Ukraine afterwards.
Obviously the percentage of ethnic Russians in the east and Crimea is now likely far higher as ethnic Ukrainians have fled those regions due to mistreatment by Russian rebels (ironically).
Also true for Donbas and Crimea, especially Donbas where it lost around 1.5m of it's population after the coup and onset of it's civil war. The vast majority moved to Russia. But that's one of the huge problems Ukraine is going to face. Since 2014, it's depopulated rapidly, and the current conflict has only accelerated that migration. Post-conflict, how many will return? And if they don't, who will replace them? And how will that affect some Ukrainian's dreams of an 'ethnic Ukrainian'.
As you say, the history there is complex and bloody, with large segments of 'Ukraine' frequently changing hands, along with pogroms and attemps to 'de-X', where X is the ethnic identity considered undesireable at the time. But a bunch of politicans tried much the same thing iin Germany last century, and look how that ended up.
As for actual war crimes, wait until the dust has settled. War crimes have been happening since 2014, so there's going to be a lot of cases to review. Or ignore, ie the mysterious way that wearing 'Das Reich' emblem has become a symbol of bravery, heroism and how an 'ethnic Ukrainian' might be expected to live.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
