Ukrainians rather DIE than be absorbed into Russia.
Those guys were all made permanently a part of the past, during last year's battles.
Have you seen how mobilization happens in Ukraine now? No longer are there lines of volunteers, but instead recruiters are grabbing people on the street - often beating them violently before stuffing them into the party wagon.
Corruption around military recruitment centers was such, that Zelensky recently fired every single regional official in charge. People are paying their last monies, to avoid being sent to fight.
When you say Ukrainians would rather die, than join Russia - it's simply not true. As I said, the zealots (or as banderists call them - "the flower of our youth") - have already been fed into the meat grinder.
It's been this way in all past conflicts between us and Ukrainians. Once you remove the hardcore idiots, the rest don't care to fight.