I do not see how people can distinguish between civilians and military in the Ukraine. My own landlord in the Ukraine said to me openly that if the Russians would ever come there he would sniper them from his windows.

And for many years people that were in the majority in the cities saying privately [to me] that things were better under the Russians.

In the open marketplace I could not find a single person that said things were better under after the fall of the USSR. Everyone that I asked said things were better then, not now.

SO who speaks for the Ukraine? The average women selling their fruit and eggs at the market who always say things were better under Russian rule, or the violent fanatics that threaten to murder anyone who voices support for Russia? 

And I can even say why this was the case--the Ukraine was a kind of  place of no law. Theft is the accepted norm. I can see that Western people that volunteer will be surprized when they find their money and possessions stolen --when they thought they were coming to help the Ukrainians.