No it wasn't one sided, the Russian backed separatists have always been active, otherwise Azov would have driven them out, but have always been met with quality Russian hardware
Democratic, if you count the ability to vote a number of times democratic ( witnessed by the BBC and CNN ) then yes, and if you count the fact that the separatist leader and Russian leader had a phone call ( which was leaked a few days before the result ) about postponing the referendum a few days before it was due to happen, but the Russian insisted it go ahead as he had communications with Putin and was told that the referendum should be 89% in favour of independence a number of days before the referendum, which just so happened to come back with a result of 89% in favour, again, Yes
but having said that, the Ukrainians were also at it, with area's which they knew would vote for independence only given a few polling stations with the idea that they wouldn't be able to get through enough votes and clashes with the Ukrainian national guards, it doesn't really sound like democracy