It was in early 2014, the first phase of the "Anti-Terror Operation".
It didn't work out in Donetsk because a column of the SBU was ambushed by "Strelkov" and his Russians-from-Russia, killing 3 Alfa and turning them back. He later bragged about how he alone started the war.
"If our unit hadn't crossed the border, everything would have fizzled out — like in [the Ukrainian city of] Kharkiv, like in Odessa," Strelkov, who uses that nom-de-guerre meaning "Shooter" to replace his last name Girkin, was quoted as saying.
This is recent? What's your source? Not doubting just would like to read for myself, haven't heard these kind of details at all.
Everything I come across is just mainstream propoganda with fog of war
It was in early 2014, the first phase of the "Anti-Terror Operation".
It didn't work out in Donetsk because a column of the SBU was ambushed by "Strelkov" and his Russians-from-Russia, killing 3 Alfa and turning them back. He later bragged about how he alone started the war.
"Strelkov" bragging but he's right, it was him who did it: https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2014/11/21/russias-igor-strelkov-i-am-responsible-for-war-in-eastern-ukraine-a41598