Today, the Russian government has neither the intention nor the capability to launch the sort of premeditated conventional attack on NATO that the new missiles are supposed to counter. Russian nuclear “saber-rattling” is intended to deter NATO from intervening directly in Ukraine, and thereby starting a NATO-Russia war. There remains however an acute risk that an unplanned mutual escalation could lead to war. In this case, U.S. missiles firing into Russia from Germany could easily be the tripwire for nuclear catastrophe.
Of course Donbas will join Russia with your scheme. All the Ukrainians have been displaced. It is nothing else but colonization of Ukraine by Russia.
To be fair, only the people who lived in Donbas until the little green men invaded 8 years ago would need to be asked in a referendum.