Crimea is dominated by ethnic Russians. When Ukrainian-Russians saw their man was kicked out of office, what Russian would support Ukrainian nationalist kicking out their leader, and moving in their own leader? Eastern Ukraine is Russian speaking, they have Russian family in Russia. They don’t want their language to be abolished, either, like the Ukrainian government did by enacting a law that abolished the Russian language. The Donbass is mostly Russian people. Zelenskyy regime hates Russians but wants to claim land that ethnic Russians occupy, and made their home. Ukraine does not need Crimea and the objective to try to get it back is purely political based on nationalism.