really. the indiscriminate shelling isn't enough? contrary to the statements from the podium, putin was under extreme internal pressure to intervene. what we've been seeing is a strong rise in russian nationalism, and this narrative that putin (and russia) is too weak to defend it's own brethren.
rather, it seems to me that the entire point of this is to try and draw the russians into a quagmire to see them drain their resources and get them distracted. a la afghanistan. well, it worked back then. and what the americans are ultimately drawing on is their own failure in vietnam. a russia that is pre-occupied with a conflict on it's borders is a russia that is less of an annoyance in syria and other places that the americans are trying to redraw the map around.
for a while, it looked like the russians had fallen for it, but they stepped back.