Putin took advantage of the situation, took what was critical to Russia out of the game, and is laughing at all the trash talk about "evil Russians". It's nothing but schoolyard taunts to try and convince Putin he can and should take over Eastern Ukraine because the pro-Russians there are so active. Half the people in the Ukraine call relatives in Russia on a regular basis because they're family. "Covert Russian operatives" aren't a problem for the coup crowd in Kiev, their fellow Ukrainians are a problem for them. The average Ukrainian just won't shut up and let the elite who refused to wait on elections tell the ignorant masses what's best for them. They're not a bit different than the King Barry court in DC, they just have to deal with a larger percentage of the population being willing to stand up to their armed thugs than King Barry has to deal with.
Besides, the Ukrainians in the East don't need any Russian aid, all the units the Kiev government sends in to smack them down defect from the government and join the locals.
Buy a clue, if their own troops won't fight for the government in Kiev, the Kiev crowd are desperate to find someone stupid enough to rush in and start killing the Ukrainians the Kiev coup crowd want killed. The very LAST thing the gang in Kiev, the EU, and the US, want is for the scheduled elections to actually take place.
That's why they didn't just wait a few months for elections in the first place, they knew they wouldn't win and the EU has them by the naughty bits so they better deliver. Think about it, the reason the "government" in Kiev isn’t coming down hard on groups like Right Sector is because they need them to protect themselves. What the “government” in Kiev is really afraid of is a "terrorist incident" blowing the "the leadership" away and they know damn well it would be someone other than Russians making it happen.
People who don't study history are condemned to repeat it.
People who are so gullible they refuse to admit what their own government is capable of end up like average German in WWII; wondering how their righteous deeds suddenly turned into a real war with half the planet working to blow them away.
The EU thought they could be brilliant grifters and the mark would never even know what hit them. It didn't work because Putin made a deal for real debt relief and a huge discount on energy prices. Even the dolt in charge of the Ukraine at the time could see it was a better deal than the EU giving out a few Europas Rail Passes and an official You're European Now, Baby" reusable shopping bags. The EU screwed up the Ukraine, let them fix it.
We have a strategic interest in Nigeria.
We have a strategic interest in Syria.
We have no strategic interest in Ukraine.
But oddly enough, King Barry and Rambo Biden are beating the war-drums over the Ukraine?
Muzzies in Nigeria and Syria are murdering men, women, and children, who won't deny they're Christian and become Muslim by he hundreds and thousands. If people in this country want the vicarious thrill of watching someone fighting real evil bastards on their behalf, they should be on their soapboxes screaming about why we aren't saving Christians in countries where we do have strategic interests, not about the bill for thirty years of screw-ups in the Ukraine coming due.