The east is mostly ethnic Russians Donbass and Luhansk.
And the South too.
Unfortunately they couldn’t resist and after horrible crimes by fascist thugs (such as burning 47 civilians alive) theyhad to give up.
The threat to Russia’s existence?
Have you looked at a map?
Ukraine in nato would make defense impossible from nukes.
That is too close to Moscow to react.
That is a red line and that was known for decades by the west.
https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/08MOSCOW265_a.html
Russia did not ‘annex’ Crimea.
They are also ethnic Russians, only have been ukro oficially for some decades.
They have always voted to go back to Russia in referendums loooong before this war.
Especially after when they were discriminated against.
All these are verifiable facts, you could know all this with some effort and not only consume US garbage news.
Edit: I just read your comment “Lefties supported Kamala.” so it’s clear you don’t even know the basics of your own sorry country.
And these people want to have an opinion on geopolitics.
Most of it from being a subsidy queen.
Now even more since he’s important for the US war machine and is getting billions in contracts.
https://www.mintpressnews.com/pentagon-recruiting-elon-musk-nuclear-war/289055/