alt Hacker News> If you want to believe that Russia had no military forces in Ukraine before 2022
that's not what i said, and supporting a warring faction doesn't really qualify as "invasion" nor "taking territory".
also, i would recommend very strict skepticism about politically sensitive content on wikipedia. it can still be useful for general timelines, but a simple check at the sources (when there are any) will reveal they tend to be overwhelmingly one-sided.
it's fine if you want to learn about, say, birds, engines or stars, though.
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The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has established that there was no genuine separatism in Eastern Ukraine in 2014. From the get-go, these were operatives of Russian military and special services, or people under their direct control. Girkin, one of the main leaders of Russian forces in Ukraine, has confirmed the same: there was no grassroots action; it was them who started the war in 2014. Removing insignia from uniforms does not make it any less of a foreign invasion.
ECHR's lengthy verdict on the responsibility of the MH-17 shootdown lays out all the relevant facts.
> supporting a warring faction doesn't really qualify as "invasion" nor "taking territory"
Doing so with active duty military forces absolutely does.