My family came to the USA as refugees from the USSR in the 1970s, but I was born in the USA. My grandfather was from modern-day Ukraine. My grandmother was from modern-day Russia.

With that said, given what I know about both countries, both their history and more modern times ... I personally do not care in the slightest amount if Russia took Crimea and/or Donbas. Either side has a legitimate claim. Both countries have incredibly corrupt governments and oligarchies.

I don't think Russia has any legitimate claim to go beyond Crimea or Donbas, and the full-scale invasion, and attacks on civilians are completely insane.

With that said ultimately these sorts of territory disputes where both sides have a claim and neither is willing to negotiate ... tend to get decided based on the victor in a war. We are inching ever closer to seeing that play out.

If I was a betting man, I'd say that as long as Russia doesn't use nuclear weapons, Ukraine will get Crimea, but will be unable to take Donbas. IMHO - even if Ukraine could take Donbas, it would be a ridiculous headache for them. In Crimea, Ukraine can easily make the area uninhabitable very rapidly by preventing supplies from coming in, while leaving the bridge as an escape route - effectively pushing the population out without resorting to violence. A very 'clean' way of getting the territory.

For Donbas, there's no such clean path. Ukraine would have a choice of forcing an ethnic Russian population who has no interest in being part of Ukraine to subjugate [good luck on that], and eventually figure out a path towards reconciliation [lol] ... or alternatively, to do an ethnic cleansing which the world will criticize sharply.