OK, so obviously I’m a lib, naive and fooled by propaganda etc. but I really would like to engage with some of your points in a good faith, because I honestly think you have only a part of the picture.
One thing you are missing is the actual feeling and wants of people in Ukraine. While I obviously cannot say that I know what the entire country wants but I’m friends with people who immigrated from Ukraine, have regular contacts helping refugees escaping the war, hell, I even know a couple of people who went back to support the country.
And in this specific bubble, I can see how opinions swayed from wanting peace and generally even agreeing that parts of regions contested after 2014 should just be let go to full on anti-russian sentiments. Because as terrible the war in Donbass has been and however many issues with corruption or fight right groups or nazis or whatever else there were, this invasion brought chaos and destruction on a completely different scale. And knowing the conditions some of the families of my friends have to live daily in and the way they respond - if Ukraine as a people didn’t want to fight, that shit would end in a day.
And I know the argument that the war is controlled from US and that Ukraine is only doing what it’s told and that may (or not) be true on geopolitical level but locally? The sentiment is quite clear.
So I don’t think your solution would work. You say that Russia won’t stop fighting whatever happens, but what if it is the same for Ukraine?
I think you misunderstood me. I’m talking about people living in another country with general opinion against the war in Donbass, I’m not sure what do you mean by “peace activists”.
Also AFAIK it was never seen by them as Donbass self-determination but rather it was seen as Russian intervention, albeit on much smaller scale.