Edit : Oh. You didn’t know that Crimea and the Donbass voted for decades to join the Russian Federation ? That’s what happens when you only read western medias.
They could have voted for whatever they wanted, the problem is that Russia invaded another country. So maybe to join Russia they should have obtained indipendence from Ukraine and then asked to join Russia.
Look, here in Italy there are regions in the north that wanted to be part of another countries, they consider themself part of another county. But that it is not a justification for that another country to invade these regions that are part of Italy.
Do you know who did the same way that Putin to annex regions this way ? Hitler.
They could have voted for whatever they wanted, the problem is that Russia invaded another country. So maybe to join Russia they should have obtained indipendence from Ukraine and then asked to join Russia.
Look, here in Italy there are regions in the north that wanted to be part of another countries, they consider themself part of another county. But that it is not a justification for that another country to invade these regions that are part of Italy.
Do you know who did the same way that Putin to annex regions this way ? Hitler.