Which changed when Donetsk and Lugansk have declared themselves autonomous and asked Russia for assistance against Ukraine's attacks.

Under international law, Russia is not the aggressor as the "right of self-determination of peoples" is usually held in such high esteem. In my view, the attack came from Ukraine and the 2 republics have taken "assistance" against a genocide that has been going on for 8 years and intensified in 2022. There is no right of a state to wage war on parts of the former state entity, to murder them and to raze their dwellings to the ground. I assume that exactly at this point the "international law" was massively broken on the part of Ukraine, only... nobody in the West was disturbed. Pathetic! One can only say.