Re: Just a FYI
The present situation only tangentially involves the take-over of Crimea and mainly involves that Russia has been infiltrating military and political operatives into Ukraine to build a "grass roots"-in-appearance violent civil war which Russia will then "mediate" by steam-rolling across all of Ukraine and declaring that a truce is announced after the Ukraine government is put against the wall.
This is because Putin hates the idea that Ukraine could be admitted to NATO where NATO countries would immediately cover the border with Russia and start ejecting the Russian military and political assets back to Russia.
Recall that these same infiltrated assets blew a civilian airliner out of the sky as they had been itching to take out a Ukraine military flight and blame it on Ukraine military.
There's money to be made by Putin taking control of Ukraine and money to be lost if Ukraine is accepted by NATO.
The playbook is clear - infiltrate with adversarial forces, create structural problems, suggest that war will devastate civilian populations and then move massive military assets in to "stabilize" the situation. If NATO membership happens then none of that works, so it's likely we will see Russia trying to step up the timetable.