Not uncommon with inhabitants of Donbass. Many of them are actively hostile to the Ukrainian language and culture. If you read my many prior posts on the topic, I suggest that they are actually better off in their own country in some ways. Without Donbass, the rest of Ukraine is culturally united and far more stable. I suspect the Ukrainian government secretly feels the same way, but is unable to officially accept the secession because of the resulting political fall out within their electorate.
There are other considerations however. Donbass was destabilized and the secession was militarily accomplished by the Russian army. The myth that a Donbass militia ejected the Ukrainian army is exactly that. It creates a dangerous precedent that Russia can destabilize neigbouring countries and then invade them without consequences. What happens if Russian invades Latvia? And then declares itself the "protector" of the Hungarian micro-minority in Ukraine and rolls across the border and takes Kiev?
By continuing to align with Russia, Donbass has rejected even the halfhearted attempts of the Kiev government to clean up corruption and Westernize its political and economic culture. Russia is going nowhere but down and Donbass residents appear to have signed on for the trip, happy in the knowledge that they are part of the Rossky Mir.
