The International Olympic Committee on Thursday suspended the Russian Olympic Committee for recognising regional organisations from four territories annexed from Ukraine.
The IOC said the ROC would banned with immediate effect and would not be eligible for any funding after it recognised Olympic Councils from the regions of Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.
Literally nobody claims they are “independent”. Russia annexed it and claims it’s Russian, the rest of the world recognizes it as regions of Ukraine.
Well, they did friendo 🙃 (they = Donbass people)
And also you’re wrong on another point, Putin/Russia recognised their independence