If the war wasn’t just yet another hoax of whites killing whites, Russia would get off its ass and annex the whole of the south (where the ethnic Russians still live) and leave the rump north (of Ukrainians) to itself. Yes, it’s still a land border, but there wouldn’t be millions of fifth column rebels to deal with on either side. This also has the benefit of the Russian annexation of Transnistria, since otherwise they’ll still just be an exclave.

Here’s even a jew media article from 2014 talking about this.