I have already expressed my take on the issue elsewhere but I can give a rundown of what I said (again facing the prospect of conspiracy-obsession charges):
According to Illarionov (Putin's ex-aide), after the debacle ot 2004 Putin has had a contingency plan prepared (known as "Clockwork orange") in case the situation in Ukraine went out of his control once again. I believe Putin has been watching the crisis evolvement and by the middle of February (2014) realized that Yanukovych was unlikely to keep his power. Then he kicked it off in the Crimea where the ground to accept whatever he does was the readiest (for various reasons). Inspired by the success he proceeded with the whole of south east, but only Donbas (to be precise the industrial regions of it) proved susceptible to his overtures.
So the answer to your question depends on what you mean by "long before".
I don't know what vote you mean, but Russian offensive (its preparatory stages) started around February 20-21 when Yanukovych (although already powerless and/or hunted) was officially the president, so whatever was done by the Ukrainian government after that couldn't have basically changed Putin's intentions.
If you read it carefully, you will see that by the time it happened there had been some unfriendly actions on both sides, so the situation was tense.
In the Crimea-based Ukrainian military units (indeed, as well as throughout whole Ukraine) there were no tensions with Russia/Russian units. Whatever others may claim, Maidan never adopted any anti-Russian stance. Russia's aggression came as a shock to all the nation. Ukrainian soldiers who later withdrew from the Crimea admitted that they had had most friendly relations with Russians garrisoned there, had been on countless joint exercises and parades, visited each other's bases very often. They were incredulous when it all started and thought that it was some mistake which was bound to be corrected any time soon. They coudn't realize that Putin meant business.
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