Perhaps before the 2022 invasion. You can see for example the first round of the last presidential election results here - the light blue supported the pro-Russia candidate Yuriy Boyko, who didn’t advocate being part of Russia but instead wanted better relations with Russia. After the invasion, Boyko himself apparently became part of a new party of ex-pro-russian candidates who now support Ukraine against Russia.

Generally it’s hard to say how many fit into the category of “wanted an independent Ukraine but that is still close to Russia”, but my sense is that it was a pretty large part of the blue group. Consider for example the average American liberal who wants the US to be more like Canada - probably there are some who would rather have their part of the country become part of Canada, but it’s probably not most and certainly nowhere near all. Additionally, it’s likely that many who actually did want to live in Russia changed their mind after the atrocities of the invasion.

That is indeed the case, it’s important to keep in mind that Ukraine was created by USSR out of parts of Russia, Poland, Hungary, and Romania. I highly recommend watching a lecture that Mearsheimer gave back in 2015 to get a bit of background on the subject. Mearsheimer is certainly not pro Russian in any sense, and he gives an objective analysis of the situation. Let’s take a look at some slides from the lecture here. First, here’s the demographic breakdown of Ukraine:

here’s how the election in 2004 went:

this is the 2010 election:

As we can clearly see from the voting patterns in both elections, the country is divided exactly across the current line of conflict. Furthermore, a survey conducted in 2015 further shows that there is a sharp division between people of eastern and western Ukraine on which economic bloc they would rather belong to:

When modern-day Ukraine was formed in 1990, it was majority Ukrainian, but with a sizable Russian (and smaller Romanian and Polish) minority. Over the next twenty or so years, this minority voted for parties and politicians that favoured stronger ties with Russia. In contrast, ethnic Ukrainians supported joining (or at least aligning with) the EU. This conflict came to a head in 2014, when the pro-Russian government was overthrown by pro-EU protestors. Relations between the two groups have worsened since then, leading to pro-Russian militants seizing power in the (Russian majority) Donbass and Crimea, and joining Russia.

There are people in Denmark who want to be part of North Korea. So let’s ignore these oddballs.

What Russia loves to do, since like ever, is to drive out natives to a region and plant Russian ethnics there to get a hold of it.

For example this happened to Crimea more than once. Most noteworthy in 1944 when Stalin ordered mass deportations of non Russian ethnicities. Last time was in 2014, when Russia annexed the peninsula and started shipping their own people in. These people are not Ukrainian but their voice still counted when it came to becoming a part of Russia.

Not like Russia gives a fuck about what is right, but it gave them an excuse to bite off a chunk of another country.

If there are parts, they can move. What a few people want doesn’t mean national borders should be taken by force by another state.