This FT article is behind a registration 'wall', which allows limited access:
In an anonymous military classroom somewhere in Moscow, 12 portraits in identical tortoiseshell frames stand on a metal bench placed on a dais. In front of each picture is a bunch of six roses, red and pink. The dead.....were operatives of Russian special forces. All 12 died in Ukraine in recent weeks. Officially, they were all on holiday.

It ends citing Nigel Inkster, of IISS, ex-SIS (MI6):
It is about subversion, it is about espionage with limited use of deniable special forces and the use of deniable proxies...It is a war that is never really declared.

Link:http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/f28913f6-1...#axzz3AMNKyZaz