And according to Levada, the independent (registered as foreign agent in Russia) polling company, majority of the Crimean Tatars in 2020 preferred Russia to Ukraine (which has some serious issues with minorities).

The fact of the matter is that ever since Crimea was illegally (according to the Soviet constitution at the time) transferred to Ukraine in the 50's, as an autonomous region it has tried to gain full autonomy or even rejoin Russia. There were 9 attempts between 1991 and 2014.

What finally triggered the events in 2014 was the Maidan coup and a following attempt by Tatar and Ukrainian demonstrators to storm the Crimean parliament to end the autonomy. This, and the fact that Crimean parliament was not even consulted when Ukraine allowed Tatars the right of return in Crimea did certainly cause a lot of friction at the time between ethnic groups in Crimea.

But apparently things can change.