no they sent the insurgents in in 2014 to take the land defacto,(and lied about that ) ......they were still PRTETENDING to be helping the locals at that stage ......that was the narrative .
They weren't ready for the admission of putins naked ambition to be revealed .....putins desire to enlarge the russian empire further at Ukraines expense
Kharkiv and Kherson weren't oinvolved then ....they were added later putin talks about a "buffer " ......these two across the sout are no buffer ....they were taken to link to Crimea .....and putin wanted Odesa too , to link close to Transnistria .......you people are as much in lack of real honesty as putin about motives .
