This is exactly my point. There's close to 3,5-3,6 million people in DNR & LNR combined, most of those have lived there since before the conflict. Those militias were also formed from the local forces even though over the years many Russian troops were unofficially sent there to fight — but the most important part of Russian backing was in terms of weapons, supplies & also military training/organisations.
Harms that can’t be your point. Look at the population of the Luhansk and Donetsk oblast, the estimated size of the active personnel in the region, and the estimated amount of conscripts/volunteers that have entered from Russia. Without Russia’s leadership, manpower and arms, there are no supposed separatist states or armies. It’s a coup d'état backed by Russia.
Over half the people that lived there before the war have left. The people there who are left are those with no option and are disproportionately those seeing out their pensionable years there. This isn’t liberation or them exercising their self-determination.
That’s nice. The goal isn’t to punish at this moment it’s to deter. The aim is to stop a war. In the real world the only deterrent the west has got short of sending in forces are heavy sanctions. Sanctioning him now does feck all to stop him doing what we think he’s about to do. Yeah, it likely won’t stop him - it very much seems like he’s made up his mind - but until such a time as he invades there’s still a chance it might.
The war started in 2014. What the hell do you think has been happening in Crimea and Donbas? We now have Russia officially sending “peace-keeping” forces into land that is recognised by every single country around the world – except by Russia – as Ukrainian, and people are still saying there is no war. Do we actually need Ukraine to unwisely respond before people go “Geez, I guess there’s a war now. Better get sanctioning.”?
Edit: typo