Please provide a citation, please. You are not the only one who is pushing the story that "the LPR and DPR are just creatures of Russia and were supported by Russian troops and had no actual support from the people" blah blah.

Please give me some credible sources for this story, because I rely on the reporting of Jacques Baud, former Swiss Intelligence Officer and OSCE observer.

he writes:

"Let’s try to examine the roots of the [Ukrainian] conflict. It starts with those who for the last eight years have been talking about “separatists” or “independentists” from Donbass. This is a misnomer. The referendums conducted by the two self-proclaimed Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk in May 2014, were not referendums of “independence” (независимость), as some unscrupulous journalists have claimed, but referendums of “self-determination” or “autonomy” (самостоятельность). The qualifier “pro-Russian” suggests that Russia was a party to the conflict, which was not the case, and the term “Russian speakers” would have been more honest. Moreover, these referendums were conducted against the advice of Vladimir Putin."

LINKS:

https://marktaliano.net/the-military-situation-in-the-ukraine-jacques-baud/

If you prefer the original French:

https://cf2r.org/documentation/la-situation-militaire-en-ukraine/