Somethibg like 20k deaths recorded by and fought by the people of donbass is the proof. They literally formed an autonomous zone and army to stop the Kiev terrorizing since 2014.
Discussion
Sure sure, totally happened...
Btw, did you see Russia's memorandum for "peace"? Take a look, it literally destroys 100% of Russia's pro peace narrative. Spoiler: it demands that Ukraine ban nationalist parties and adopt Russian as national language, it's the literal definition of imperialism, wanna defend them still?