Right. Typically disputants have different positions; hence the dispute. The scope of localized power in the Donbas vis-a-vis the central government is a gap that needed (and still needs) addressing.
Again we differ---having spent way to much time in actual combat environments one tends to "recognize" a tactical trend;
1. explain why the well trained and experienced Russian VDV airborne unit got so badly mauled---did in fact the Ukrainians "know" the Russians were coming and had been prepared for it?
2. explain why there were two specific battles--both the Ukraine lost but it gained tactical time to pull back and hold other locations even in the face of massive social media critique the units were told stand and die if need be to the last bullet and then surrender after equipment destruction which they did---BETTER yet just why were the two locations selected for an Alamo stand?
3. why the subtle indicators of a very serious unspoken guerrilla war being waged now inside the "from Russia controlled territory" which are causing more Russian troop loses that are not being spoken about in western media but the truck loads of dead bodies going back to Russia has now the Russian population attention as per the recent in Moscow 50K plus peace march
4. why are there still
four surrounded UA enclaves that are doing just fine even as they are surrounded---inside the Russian controlled "territory"--that until today have not been taken by the Russians or their mercenaries
4. why the apparent in the face of a "weak" UA are they doing very well in the face of a constant combined Russian troop and mercenary attacks on the Dontesk airport.
Does all of that appear to be the concept of an "unprepared Ukrainian Army rolled over during the Russian invasion"--or does it indicate that more is ongoing behind the scenes we non Ukrainian types know nothing about?
Ever seriously watch the good cop bad cop game going on between the Ukrainian President and the Ukrainian PM---well conducted if one asks me--the Russians are fully negatively focused on the PM and view the President to be the best person to deal with--and you think that is not "by chance"?
Come on AP think and analyze events, indicators and multiple sources AND it is open source to all to see and read.
You make this into a moral question and question my rationale--it is all about how a smaller and far militarily weaker country that lives next to a somewhat angry powerful neighbor decides how it is going to survive---I still maintain the current Ukrainian leadership has a strategy and it is using every available tool it has to survive.
In some aspects AP go back and restudy American Revolutionary War articles---did we not do exactly the same thing?
Come on AP think it through and you will see we actually did things similarly in 1776 as the Ukrainians are doing in 2014.
If it means giving up territory to survive knowing it is going to lose it anyway to gain a strong sanctions regime they believe will on the end reign in Putin so be it --if it means using the EU as a leverage point against Putin and to gain economic support so be it--and on and on.
Is that not the same strategy Stalin used as the Germans raced over the SU towards Moscow?
In some aspect the Ukrainians have done something the West was unable to do in Georgia and Moldavia---the lost zone is not in fact "frozen" as many western pundits have feared---the Ukrainians have boxed in the mercenaries and at some point Putin will have to sit down and do a simple math calculation-AT what point will I declare a "victory" and leave or will I be willing to go down in Russian history and be declared the Russian leader who destroyed his own economy in the name of "fascism"?
If he breaks out and heads to Odessa THEN we the West has a serious problem on our hands which is then headed to an open armed conflict that no one can calculate the end state on.
He is not yet at that point---but his "oligarchs" are getting there quickly.
As the comments today by the Serbank SEO indicate--he is blaming openly the government for the business decisions disaster hitting them.
NOTICE AP---it appears that on their on the UA can take on the mercenaries and win---their strategy was to slow down the Russians and box them in and if it means loss of territory to do that then so be it---it is at least a valid survival strategy.
RU cossacks Luhansk obl:Idiots asked why we shoot from resident.areas.We'll fire from every flat or Ukr advances
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Uex8Y