There is no need for them to be formally represented in parliaments or governments of “banana republics" whereamongst Ukraine proudly belongs; as always, they feel themselves at best running under the eddies.

Again that’s not to say Russia has a moral edge there; they lack any soft power skills whatsoever, hence Donbass war in 2014–15 whereto a lot of natural-born killers and racketeers easily gravitated, turning Donbass into their little private hunting ground, or subsequent phat stoopid meat grinder trench warfare in DPR and LPR since February last year. Kremlin cabal clumsily implements strategies which might have been seen as remotely reasonable back after Maidan insurrection, when not so much time has been lost since coup and (better) half of Ukraine would have readily supported bloodless transfer under Russian aegis modeled after Crimean annexation. But not later.

And in doing so Russia seems more interested in process and less in end result, not quite unlike it was in Chechnya. The closest possible analogy that might be drawn is, however, not the one Godwin’s law dictates under Dem Party rule, but between this war and Iran-Iraqi stand in 1980s; the latter ended in reversal to pre-war borders in disputed Khuzestan province, among with, as a minor (for participating dictators) detail, loss of several tens of thousands of lives. It took some 8 years for this conflict to peter out. We can count on approximately the same ringdown period for Ukraine war should Biden’s teleprompters win the reelection for their drone, i.e., all that’s left of 2020s. Or longer (think about civil war starcrossed with narcotrafico in Colombia, under keen US patronage), but in the end, Left Bank Ukraine will be not much more suited to normal life than the Left Bank of Jordan River. Donbass, of course, will represent the classic catastrophe zone for decades to come.

Disclaimer: I am Russian-born person myself with close ties to Moscow and Don region in the past.