I haven’t finished the article yet - but it was making some interesting points about people in the Donbas region wanting to join Russia, and that fighters there were locals, and not (as we have been told) itinerant Russians.

That was different to what I have heard before, and he pointed to the referendum in 2022 that shows that 87% of Donbas support annexation to Russia. However… that referendum was taken after the invasion and so needs to be considered possibly suspect. Link

Maybe a better source for a referendum was from before the initial 2014 annexation of Crimea and the accelerated fighting in Donbas from then. The only one I can find dates to 1991 - and it strongly shows a desire for independence, even in Donbas where it was over 80%. Link. Interestingly lowest support for independence was Crimea at 50-60%. Overall the country was 92% for with 84% turnout. That’s a pretty strong result, although a little old.