Quote Originally Posted by Hanna View Post
As far as I have seen on the news (mainly RT Newsteam) the rebels have quite outdated kit. They say themselves that it's from the Ukrainian army and old Soviet kit that is still around.
I would have thought that if Russia helped them, they would have more high-tech equipment.

Also how does the upraising benefit Russia, since Russia doesn't plan to annex the Donbass?
I don't see what Russia has to gain from a civil war in Eastern Ukraine.
If it was the entire border region, I'd say that Russia perhaps wanted a buffer between itself and Ukraine in NATO. But there are several areas in Ukraine that border Russia but where there is no upraising.
Their equipment doesn't seem so outdated since they are able to hold back an entire army and shoot down military aircraft.

If Russia is in fact provoking a civil war there, I don't think anyone would know the "real" reason; propaganda machines work quite effectively in every country in the world, but theories are: to have a land corridor to Crimea, or to keep Ukraine unstable so that it won't be prepared to join NATO/EU stuff, also that NATO wants to put missiles in Ukraine to threaten Russia. So if you believe any of that then it makes sense. Also this is an area with mines, natural resources, and weapons factories.

Anyway, as far as the original topic, it's hard for me to believe that just 1 month before this incident I had three flights within this country, one terminating 200 km from one of the hot spots... I can't believe it's come to this.