Unlike the previous situation in Crimea? They took it by military force. The same playbook is going on here, with the Russian government currently moving to recognize the Donbass region as independent. To justify that, there was a supposed IED found that clearly was a false flag operation. Putin immediately started blabbering about “genocide”. I find it hard to see this as anything other than trying to rile up the people in the region who consume a lot of Russian-language media that will be echoing Putin’s words.