As many of you may be aware, there's a bit of a war scare going on between Russia and Ukraine at the moment. The most recent ceasefire in Eastern Ukraine broke down, there's been an increase in Russian troop movements to areas near the border, and reciprocal Ukrainian movements have also been reported. NATO commands in Europe have been put on alert

Whether this turns into something significant or is just normal posturing and a snap exercise, it raised the question for me - what is Russia's actual goal or plan for Eastern Ukraine?

Russia's original goal for their invasion of Ukraine was to prop up/restore the Russia-friendly (some say puppet) government of Viktor Yanukovych which...did not go well. With regards to Crimea, Russia's goal is very clear, and the country is investing large amounts of money in both infrastructure and propaganda to cement Crimea's status as a permanent part of Russia

But the plan for the Donbass is far less clear. On one hand, there are signs that Russia plans for integration of the occupied territory into Russia to a significant extent - for example, issuing Russian passports to much of the population of the region. But on the other, Donetsk and Luhansk have not been annexed like Crimea, and Russia has not made the major economic investments in these regions that it has in Crimea. Donetsk and Luhansk have also established themselves as separatist territories - not as a sort of pro-Russian Ukrainian "government-in-exile" that claims to be the true government of all of Ukraine, nor a republic claiming to represent all Russian-speaking/ethnic Russian Ukrainians

With the obvious caveat that Vladimir Putin himself does not post on reddit, so we're unlikely to know for sure, what's Russia's long term goal or strategy for Eastern Ukraine? Is it just a remnant of a failed foreign policy initiative to retain control of all of Ukraine? Is it part of a strategy to bring all of Ukraine back into Russia's sphere of influence? Is it a springboard for further invasions of Ukraine, including potentially annexing the half of Ukraine that is principally Russian speaking/ethnic Russian? Does Russia even have a coherent strategy?