“these “Pro-Russian Demonstrators” might not have even been from Ukraine at all, as Putin has been bussing people in from Russia for awhile now”
Utter nonsense. It’s enough to check out the Donetsk ethnic population to realise that that’s utter bullshit.
The city of Donetsk was founded in 1869 in the South-East part of Tzarist Russian Empire as the capital of a coal-mining region.
The main current nationality structure of the Donetsk: Russians: 493,392 people, 48.15%, Belarusians: 11,769 people, 1.15%, Ukrainians: 478,041 people, 46.65%.
The Russian language is dominant; even the ethnic Ukrainians consider Russian as their first language.
The Donetsk province gave Victor Yanukovych 90% of the votes in the 2010 elections; so it’s no wonder that they took in hardly the putsch in Kiev and find Yanukovich demise and the Maidan-government illegitimate.
"Busloads of People Are Coming From Across the Border of Russia, Armed With Bats"
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/116960/letter-donetsk-not-pro-russia-its-menaced-russian-tourists
From the other link:
"16:48 In Yalta, people with Russian flags burst into a Pro-Ukrainian protest and attacked the peaceful protesters with Ukrainian attributes.
Around 50 young men with Russian Federations flags and shouts of, “Russia!” and “Fascism will not pass!” first surrounded the peaceful protesters, and then pushed them off the stage and occupied it.
They came to the protest by the fountain from another, pro-Russian meeting, says an eyewitness.
A short fight started, but nobody suffered grave injuries. The fight resumed as of 16:40.
Yalta citizens with blue-and-yellow flags are ribbons are not leaving and are standing by the booth.
There are not many people, the atmosphere is tense. Some women are crying.
The locals are convinced that the attackers are Russian. Among the people bearing Russian flags are some men in Kuban Cossack dress.– pravda.com.ua"
http://www.interpretermag.com/ukraine-liveblog-day-24-russia-mobilizes-near-the-border/#0449
How many Ukrainians dress like Cossacks?
From the same link from above, Russkie protestor determined to prove he's local, a tweet:
"suspicions in Donetsk, pro-Russia man who interrupted a presser w a bullhorn insisted 1st on showing journos his ID, to prove he's local"
More Cossacks coming in:
"Armed groups of Cossacks from across the area are flocking to the disputed region to help Moscow wrest it from Ukraine in hopes they'll be rewarded by being integrated into Russia's primary security apparatus after the takeover is complete"
http://time.com/22125/ukraine-crimea-cossacks-russia/ The Donetsk province gave Victor Yanukovych 90% of the votes in the 2010 elections; so it’s no wonder that they took in hardly the putsch in Kiev
Russian propaganda to make us believe that every ethnic Russian in Donetsk is pro-Kremlin take over and violence. The first article addresses this question. I'd rather see a poll of something like "Yes, we agree with the Russian tourists who are doing the killing in the streets and want to join the dictatorship under Putin." Until then, the Putinistas have zero credibility in their claims.