The ones who did in Crimea by voting to join Russia weren’t recognized internationally. In general though, if you’re in the middle of Ukraine and your family has lived there for centuries, even when Western backed fascists take over the country and start shelling you in the civil war, would you easily make the decision to leave for Russia instead of staying, trying to survive however you can? I think if people legitimately were invested in preserving the Ukrainian state’s territorial integrity, the press gangs wouldn’t be abducting people with vans, and the militias for the LPR and DPR wouldn’t have been able to recruit much of anyone at all.
In Crimea they, when surveyed, said they would prefer to join Russia. That isn’t the same as voting to join Russia. It was non-binding and people don’t vote the same when something’s non-binding, sometimes they just vote out of protest regarding the state of the country. This isn’t to say Crimeans didn’t want to join Russia, we don’t know. Nobody knows.
I think if I was in a situation that would warrant Russian military intervention, and Russia was so close by, I would leave instead of hoping for Russian occupation.
I don’t really know about the press gangs.
I don’t know how trustworthy any information about the LPR/DPR recruitment numbers could be. They have an interest in presenting high numbers, and there’d be no way to distinguish between Russian citizens and Ukrainian citizens from the outside.
The ones who did in Crimea by voting to join Russia weren’t recognized internationally. In general though, if you’re in the middle of Ukraine and your family has lived there for centuries, even when Western backed fascists take over the country and start shelling you in the civil war, would you easily make the decision to leave for Russia instead of staying, trying to survive however you can? I think if people legitimately were invested in preserving the Ukrainian state’s territorial integrity, the press gangs wouldn’t be abducting people with vans, and the militias for the LPR and DPR wouldn’t have been able to recruit much of anyone at all.
In Crimea they, when surveyed, said they would prefer to join Russia. That isn’t the same as voting to join Russia. It was non-binding and people don’t vote the same when something’s non-binding, sometimes they just vote out of protest regarding the state of the country. This isn’t to say Crimeans didn’t want to join Russia, we don’t know. Nobody knows.
I think if I was in a situation that would warrant Russian military intervention, and Russia was so close by, I would leave instead of hoping for Russian occupation.
I don’t really know about the press gangs.
I don’t know how trustworthy any information about the LPR/DPR recruitment numbers could be. They have an interest in presenting high numbers, and there’d be no way to distinguish between Russian citizens and Ukrainian citizens from the outside.