> What you propose is also pretty ironic seeing that the majority of civilian casualties and destroyed cities in Ukraine are from areas that have majority of Russian speakers.
This is the terrible irony of this war! I've had many colleagues in eastern cities like Kharkov. They would all identify as Russians. It wasn't a big deal, ever - they were Russians living in Ukraine, speaking Russian just like everyone else, of course knowing some Ukrainian but not caring about that much. And most of them would welcome joining Russia just like many people in Crimea did.
But a few days or weeks after the war they realize they are just insignificant pawns in the hands of cruel people: their own kind were shelling them, killing their families and so on. They realized this way too late, it's a tragic situation. (Fortunately most of my colleagues managed to escape, but not everybody was able to, especially old people.)
This is the terrible irony of this war! I've had many colleagues in eastern cities like Kharkov. They would all identify as Russians. It wasn't a big deal, ever - they were Russians living in Ukraine, speaking Russian just like everyone else, of course knowing some Ukrainian but not caring about that much. And most of them would welcome joining Russia just like many people in Crimea did.
But a few days or weeks after the war they realize they are just insignificant pawns in the hands of cruel people: their own kind were shelling them, killing their families and so on. They realized this way too late, it's a tragic situation. (Fortunately most of my colleagues managed to escape, but not everybody was able to, especially old people.)