Hell I’d imagine the war would be over pretty darn fast if the ukranians wanted it. White flags, surrender, get captured to protect themselves if their government is making them fight by intimidation.

Your comment is pretty reasonable if you do a quick fact check with the resources that Google or DDG gives you. But you should be careful to separate "Ukraine" with the specific people within Ukraine who live in the Donbas. Some quick factors to consider with your polling article. And I don't blame you for not knowing to pay attention to this if you haven't followed this conflict closely.

The poll is from before the civil war. The people in the Donbas were happy with their autonomy (They had some autonomy from the rest of Ukraine) and national status in 2014 and prior, because the sources of grievances weren't yet fully established. After this they had to endure shelling and terror attacks from openly Nazi militias with de facto support from the new government. That changes your mind.

In your link, you can see that among the ethnic Russians (the majority of those living in the Donbass), and those in the east, support for joining the Russian Federation, and other types of pro-Russia sentiments are higher. Again, this was before the coup and suppression. 31% wishing to merge with another country with no incentive is in my opinion very significant. Can you imagine how this poll would look in your country asked about your neighbour?

But even after years of shelling, the people of the Donbass didn't want to become Russian citizens, they wanted their own state, and that's what the breakaway republics fought for.

Now after even more years of fighting, it's obvious that isn't an option, and so the question they have to weigh is if they want to be governed by Ukraine or Russia. Ukraine has stood by, and even aided the worst people terrorising them. Ukraine has spread extremely strong anti-Russian (not the state, but the ethnicity and language and culture and traditions and history) rhetoric and laws, and anti-Soviet rhetoric and laws. Meanwhile Russia has, from the view of many everyday people currently living in the occupied territories, treated them fairly, protected them and died for them. Russia listened to them diplomatically when they accused the Ukrainian government of genocide, and promised to recognise the breakaway republics as sovereign nations. The fact that this is in Russia's benefit, or if they made promises they knew they wouldn't have to keep isn't that important.

Hell I’d imagine the war would be over pretty darn fast if the ukranians wanted it. White flags, surrender, get captured to protect themselves if their government is making them fight by intimidation.

All of this to say, the soldiers fighting aren't from the cities they're fighting over.