What Putin is doing in the East is not pretty, but it is what we would do if the shoe was on our foot instead of his. Russia must and will have its land bridge to Crimea and the Black Sea, and it must and will preserve its arms industries centered around Donetsk. Putin is playing this low key with a handful of fighters here and there, because he is a chess player and Ukraine is falling apart anyway; we would have just invaded outright. It is tough to be a pawn along the frontier, and has been throughout history.
What Russia wants is Ukraine to be a land locked country, they want Odessa, which is a better port than Sevastopol, too. And the morons will laugh and say Putin is saving it from the NAZIs in Kiev.