The side that apparently blew a 300-civilian passenger jet out of the sky because they're too dumb to know what a Boeing looks like is getting direct military support from a major regional power which just happens to have nuclear weapons.
And I thought my hometown of Detroit was fucked.
This is not direct military support.
These are Russians that moved into Ukrainian territory either as soldiers in Russian forces, or as "civilians" over the last few years.
The attackers are RUSSIANS. The guys operating the BUK that shot down the airliner were RUSSIAN SOLDIERS. You don't hand a BUK over to "separatists" and a few months later have them wipe out 5 aircraft in a week. Take a look at the BUK system sometime. There is NO WAY the equipment was "handed over". It was OPERATED by RUSSIANS just like every other proxy war, Vietnam, Korea, and a whole bunch of smaller ones.
Russia is going to do what they are going to do, and for the most part, the West is going to stay out of it. Ukraine needs to start an absolutely brutal guerrilla war, or they are done for. That's all there is to it. (They are probably STILL done for no matter what they do.) The Soviets are re-building their empire.