It's pretty easy to support the republics but not support Russia. The lpr and dpr were legitimately faced with an extremely hostile government that took power in a coup that overthrew the democratically elected government that was popular in the east. Whatever you think about Russia's involvement if you actually look at the motivations of the republics, and the aggression of Kiev, you can easily see legitimate arguments for the Republics initial demands of autonomy within ukraine, and later the decision to join Russia after years of unrelenting aggression and bad faith from the Kiev Rada.