Possible timeline:
Russian forces will now attack the Ukrainian forces along the coast to “liberate” Mariupol and the rest of the Donetsk Oblat at the “request” of their newly recognised government.
Ukranian forces will defend and Russia, invoking their newly signed “friendship” treaties will claim it is a Ukranian attack on the new republics and an act of war and then strike south from Belarus towards Kyiv as a “counter attack” to remove the government and then install a “patriotic” government who will ask for assistance to remove “NATO collaborators” and a purge of the country…