The real question is what will become of DNR/LNR? Will they be based or cringe? How much of the daily 24/7 news cycle will be dedicated to calling them Russian puppet states?
My prediction is that western media will just stop talking about them entirely after the war is over. Just like Afghanistan and Syria just disappeared from the news as soon as empire lost there.
Same as with Crimea, they will be treated as stolen territory by The West but be more stable under Russian affiliation than Ukrainian. For the most part they won't be thought of at all because liberals have never actually cared about the people who live there, they just love getting whipped info a Russophobic froth.
This is assuming there are no big events that make things even worse there like fucking with the Dniepr even more or large-scale US-backed terror campaigns.