There is a reason why Republic of Donetsk and Lugansk have declared their independence and yet no annexation talk hold in Russia and no official recognition to both republic by Russia
It is actually a doubled edged sword to the Russian whether or not the rebel win or lose.
Rebel Won, then either Russia would annex it or leave it independent, both Donetsk and Lugansk have no banking and financial system, the city is badly damaged, and the population have been in a kind of holy war fighting instead of working in a factory, hence no GDP. So either Russia annex it and rebuild both oblast with their own money, which could be billions of dollars, or they leave them at their own device, which almost certainly wounded up going back to Ukraine.
Rebel Lose, Russian lose face and they are getting nothing nowhere. Ukraine would have been stuck with the reconstruction cost but they will be moving away from Russia. Russia will then be left tattered in economy and with nothing to show for.
Either way, NATO already won, before both Belarus and Ukraine are buffer state for Russia, now we are pretty sure NATO will gain a land border to Russia and this time they are not in East Germany. I actually want Ukraine give up those two province so they can just join NATO and EU and get this over with.
Thank you Russia