On 4-5 July 2014 Ukrainian forces liberated Kramatorsk and Slavyansk after a short period of occupation by Russian spetsnaz forces led by Igor Girkin. This event interrupted the Russian euphoria following "krymnash" ("Krym is ours") and resulted in serious splits and conflicts in the Russian covert forces in Donbas, composed of Russian commandos and gangsters. Faced with prospective collapse of their defense, Kremlin decided to engage on much larger scale, introducing regular Russian units, still operating without their insignia, bringing heavy armour and modern weapon systems into Ukraine. Following this decision, Ukrainian counteroffensive followed a number of failures, most notably downing of several Ukrainian military aircrafts downed by advanced "Buk" air defense system brought covertly from Russia. Russians triumphed, until ultimately on 17 July 2014 they downed the passenger Malaysian flight MH17...