What motivates a pro-Russian Donbas/Crimea seperatist?

Ubbquittious

I know almost nothing about the politics in these areas before the war broke out so just trying to understand what beef these fellas have with the Ukranian government and why would they take up arms against it? Has Putin been currying favour with these guys for years with additional funding & low tax deals or is it purely ethnic/idealogical ("longing for the good old days of the USSR")?

Yurt2

A lot of the muscle for the Donbas takeover (and to a lesser extent in Crimea) was provided by Don Cossacks across the border in Russia. Part militia, part ethnic group, and a group of people who have historically acted as soldiers of fortune for wars directed from Moscow for centuries - often for political favour, status and political sinecure in Russia. In Tsarist times, they would have been accorded a status not exactly akin to nobility, but perhaps like samurai status and acted as local state enforcers and militia in difficult to control areas during imperial expansion.

In modern times, They were involved in wars in Transnistria, Georgia, Crimea and of course the Donbas. Notably, Cossacks were hired to beat the sh*t out of protestors in the run up to the Sochi Olympics.

They're a stateless ethnicity and have proved to be a useful gun for hire group of people for Putin just as they had been in Tsarist times.

And Quiet Flows the Don is a beautiful read if one wants to understand a bit about the history and mentality of the Cossacks.