If Russia requires a pretext to move into eastern Ukraine, then many of the elements of that narrative are already in place.

But what of the Russian military's capabilities? What can be deduced from what we have seen so far of Russian operations in Crimea?

Keir Giles, director of the Conflict Studies Research Centre (CSRC), a group specialising in Russian military affairs, notes that "this is a very different Russian army from that seen during the Georgia war of 2008".

Despite the apparent easy victory in Georgia, serious deficiencies in Russia's military performance were obvious.

This "was a post-Soviet army, not much changed from the 1980s, and designed for a very different form of combat", he says.

"Serious lessons were learnt in terms of organisation, command and control, equipment, and especially inter-service co-operation.

"Communications between ground and air units were a major problem, due to a lack of effective forward air controllers properly embedded with ground units, and several of the Russian air losses were apparently shot down by their own side."

Plans for modernisation were under way before 2008. But the Georgia conflict confirmed the need for change and gave the necessary political impetus for fundamental military reform.

Roger McDermott, senior fellow in Eurasian military studies at the Jamestown Foundation in Washington DC, however, stresses the limits of the Russian reform programme.

"The failures of the campaign in Georgia were used as an excuse to launch a pre-planned reform and modernisation of the conventional armed forces. But the reform largely failed due to poor planning and internal corruption," he says.

Nonetheless, he notes that "efforts to change the structure of the military and modernise equipment continue".

Russia's ground forces "are largely unreformed in the sense that they moved to eliminate 'paper units' (many of which barely existed in practice) in 2008-09 and claimed to create a permanent readiness force based on brigades", according to Mr McDermott.

"In reality, this was ruined by too many 12-month conscripts and not enough contract personnel, while they also failed to develop a proper well-trained, non-commissioned officer cadre."

莫斯科4月7日电 基辅、顿涅茨克消息：乌克兰东南部顿涅茨克州7日爆发民众集会，部分议员成立“顿涅茨克人民委员会”并宣布组建“顿涅茨克独立共和国”，要求从俄罗斯引入维和部队并拟于5月11日前就加入俄联邦举行公投。

据俄塔社报道，顿涅茨克州议员已在州议会会议上宣读了组建“顿涅茨克独立共和国”的决定，报道援引“顿涅茨克人民委员会”公布这一决定文件称，“鉴于基辅政权采取的侵犯行为，顿涅茨克向俄联邦总统提交引入临时维和部队的要求，以保障本地区居民的安全”。俄罗斯媒体当天公布了顿涅茨克地区大规模民众集会的图像及视频资料。

乌克兰国家通讯社7日证实了上述有关组建“顿涅茨克独立共和国”的决定文件，文件称，“将基于国际法及平等、互惠、互利关系而组建共和国，共和国边界内的领土不可分割，不可侵犯”，乌通社并援引当地亲俄组织的话说，拟在5月11日前就加入俄联邦举行公投。俄塔社称，乌克兰东部哈尔科夫州及卢甘斯克州两地亦赞同此公投日期。

代行总统职责的乌克兰议长图尔奇诺夫当天就东部各州局势发表声明称，不允许克里米亚的事件在乌克兰东部重演，要求捍卫东部国境及领土完整。

截至发稿时，俄联邦总统新闻局及俄外交部尚未就此作出正式回应。顿涅茨克州位于乌克兰东南部，南临亚速海，是乌克兰重要的工业及经济地带，重工业为主，煤炭、钢铁产量居全国首位，机械制造(采矿、冶金设备)、化工(化肥、焦炭化学)发达。该州人口约470万，是乌人口最密集地区，城市人口占九成，首府顿涅茨克市。