Read the Nemtsov report https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Putin._War
On August 15, Aleksandr Zakharchenko, Prime Minister of the self-proclaimed DPR, stated that a reinforcement that came from Russia played a decisive role in the counter-offensive: "(There were) 150 units of combat armor, including about 30 tanks - the rest were AIFVs (Armored Infantry Fighting Vehicles) and APCs (Armored Personnel Carriers), and also 1,200 personnel who had undergone training during four months in the territory of the Russian Federation." Zakharchenko emphasized, "They were inserted here at the most critical moment." The decisive role played by the reinforcements arriving from Russian territory was confirmed in an interview in the newspaper “Zavtra” by the former33 DPR Minister Igor Girkin (aka Strelkov). The shifting of the front and in particular the deployment to Mariupol were achieved, in his words, "largely by vacationers, individual units of the militia which were subordinate to them.” "Vacationers" in Girkin's terminology are Russian military cadres who come to the territory of Ukraine with weapons in their hands but who are officially “on vacation.”
Vyacheslav Tetekin, a Russian State Duma deputy and a member of the Committee for Defense, estimated the number of "volunteers" who had taken part and were continuing to take part in combat actions in the Donbass to be 30,000 people. "Some fought a week there, some fought for several months, but according to the information of the authorities of the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics themselves, approximately 30,000 volunteers have gone through 4 9 combat," he emphasized. This same deputy submitted for State Duma review a draft law on conferring upon "volunteers" the status of participants 50 in combat with all the relevant benefits.
This is a sizable invasion too. Smaller, but enough to become a war https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_in_Donbas--
I wrote that it is a smaller invasion, but sizeable enough to constitute an invasion and a war, I absolutely did not say that it is the same now as it was 8 years ago, don't strawman.
What are you saying again? That it is not a war if it is not large enough to be on the headlines you read every day? Because western media made a conscious effort to look the other way to avoid getting dragged into a conflict with russia for a country that had hardly an army to defend itself in 2014. If there were 30000 americans doing tours in Ukraine, you'd know. But there aren't even any foreign fighters of any kind inside russia, so that is no reason to think the USA is at war with russia, there is no analogy whatsoever with sending troops to Ukraine to back up the russian separatists. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ukraine-russia-soldiers/some-12000-russian-soldiers-in-ukraine-supporting-rebels-u-s-commander-idUSKBN0LZ2FV20150303/
I really don't get your point unless you're trying to be a russian troll.