if you look at the linguistic and ethnic map, as well as past voting patterns, the future borders of “East Ukraine” start to suggest themselves
The area bordering Crimea is Ethnic Ukrainian mostly speaking Russian. Putin may get the yellow/brown stripe areas but that will not give Russia land access to the Crimean Peninsula. I think Ukraine will fight for the rest of their country even though the West will give in to Putin’s version of “Anschluss”.