That, a land corridor, seems to be the aim. However right now they are still in the donbas region.
Ukraine's election map, year after year, is even more reliably split between red/blue - west/east, than the USA's electoral map.
If the goal is a land-corridor to Crimea, that is the 'blue' area for sure, but how much Russian-speaker support can Russia count on?
Cause Russia being twice the size of the US, with half the population, and in control of the 10 nation CIS military battlespace and subordination just isn’t cutting it.