When I talk to Ukrainian refugees now living here they tell me that they want to preserve the political freedoms they gained after the Maidan revolution

Ukrainians didn't gain political freedoms after the coup, a third of the country which are Russian speakers literally lost political freedoms, hence the overwhelming Crimean vote for independence and the beginning of the Civil War in Donbass, whoever you're "talking" to is a fascist who's fully comfortable cleansing Ukraine of Russian speakers or they're delusional liberals who've closed their eyes and ears for the last nine years

But who am I to tell the Ukrainians to just let it be, accept their defeat and flee while they still can?

And who are you to tell the people of Donbass and Crimea they should lay down their arms and accept whatever fate Ukrainian nazis have in store for them?