Ukraine Says Pullback Plan Signed With Russia

[Tommy_Carcetti]

9. Things were going fairly well for the Ukrainian military until about late August.

Basically the separatists were on the ropes. They were losing territory left and right. And then they managed to shoot down a civilian airliner, which pretty much killed whatever remaining public sentiment that may have otherwise existed for them.

Then the deus ex machina. Suddenly, things began to reverse themselves almost overnight. The separatists managed to regain a good amount of the territory they had lost.

And not so coincidentally, reports of Crimean style Russian military units operating inside Ukraine skyrocketed during this time frame.

Bottom line is that the separatists couldn't pull it on their own. They were an embarrassment to the cause. So the big boys came in and changed the game.