I’m not making an argument. I’m trying to illustrate the reality here.
The majority of the population of these regions are russian ethnicity but were ukrainian citizens, born in ukraine. They used to be kinda split about the issue of separatism, but the constant endless genocidal rhetoric from liberals on the internet baying for russian blood has had the effect of making them support russia.
This is a problem for getting the regions back, because a majority of the population does not want to come back. Solving this is a necessary component of figuring out how to bring them back. You can sign whatever you want on paper saying “these are Ukraine again now” but if the population itself does not agree then the separatist civil war will just immediately restart.
The options available are either getting rid of them all (this is what the current far right faction of ukraine wants), or finding a way to make them want to be Ukrainian again instead of Russian. Saying things like “they can leave” doesn’t help. It sounds a lot like what the american far right says about anyone who isn’t white in america actually.