Anyone who thinks that it is the Russian regular army that the Ukrainians are fighting, are deluded fools. If Putin was going to invade, he would blitzkrieg Ukraine and it would be over in less than 24 hours.

Instead, you have an all-volunteer militia army that is comprised mostly of locals of Donbass, Donetsk, Lugansk with some international volunteers (there are some French battalion groups fighting with the rebels, among others) and some Russian volunteers. But they are just that - volunteers - they were not sent there with orders.

To fight for the rebels is truly for a just cause. You are defending the citizens of Donbass against the enemy's genocidal shelling campaigns and against western imperialism.

Meanwhile, the Ukraine Army is part forced conscripts, poorly trained who die quickly in battle. Part Ukraine Army reservists with a bit better training and experience. And part Right-wing volunteer groups such as Azov and Right Sector's battlegroups. The volunteer groups are more effective than the conscripts. And of course, you have foreign mercenaries of differing battleworthiness aiding the ukraine army.

It is not surprising, really, that the side that fights with justice and thoughts of defending their homeland in their hearts are winning the war. They have more to lose than the other guy.

In other news, 400 Ukraine Army soldiers recently deserted:

https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Freporter-ua.com%2F2014%2F08%2F27%2Fcherez-blokpost-v-zaporozhe-pytalis-proehat-400-vooruzhennyh-soldat-pokinuvshih-pozicii-v&edit-text=


So why doesn't Putin just invade and end this thing now? Well there are a few reasons from what I have gathered.

1. The West wants him to invade so they can beat the war drums and escalate this conflict further. Putin is too smart to take the bait.

2. Putin no longer needs to invade. The militia are winning the war on their own.

3. If Putin invaded there would almost certainly be calls for NATO intervention, further sanctions on Russia, futher overall escalation.

4. The West wants a war in Europe in their desperate attempt to keep the dollar propped up.

By simply not invading and allowing the ukraine civil war to play out on it's own, Putin is both one-upping the West, and preventing a larger war and more overall death in the European theater.

Brilliant.