Most of those settlements are half-deserted, some suffered lot of destruction in 2014 others were to close to the real frontline that was active for 8 years, not the nicest place for living and raising kids. But you could find a video on pro-Russian accounts in which residents are happy because DNR/LNR take over their towns. Mariupol, i don't know, lot of Russians but at the same time, the majority are Ukrainians if i am not wrong.
In DNR/LNR war is a reality for 8 years, it didn't start last week as for most of Ukraine. Shellings of Gorlovka, Doneck Lugansk... Even today UKR forced attacked civilian settlements quite hard people died there... but nobody cared. Easiest is to put all blame on Russia. But it is not quite right, at least not in my book. Ukraina has big part of the blame on her hands. 8 years they refuse any negotiations. Now, and only now, they negotiate.
But I know that most of you simply want to blame Russia....