Russians on both sides of the demarcation line in Donbass didn't have choice, indeed. In neither of the four states (now, after Russian incorporation of the DPR and LPR, reduced to 2) which claimed them as dependents. Now they can only wait for the installment of the new Bimujang Jidae across the Ukraine.

You might find useful to check this cry in the wilderness from 2016 against reality of the events that followed, especially in German corpus politicum. The text is written in Russian, though translation through Google should suffice completely.