Though Russia has a far larger military than Ukraine, nobody could have bargained for the ferocity of the resistance Ukrainians have shown against Putin's assault on their independence. 'Wherever the enemy is, we'll find them and fight them', says one Ukrainian military commander. But what precisely led to a war erupting between the two nations? Russia has been supporting a proxy war in Ukraine since 2014, funding separatists in Donetsk and Luhansk for the past 8 years - a conflict which emerged out of Russia's annexation of Crimea. 'It's like hell, I tell you. They keep shelling all the time', says one resident of a village on the front line of the conflict. In these regions, the Kremlin pushes the propaganda that Ukraine is full of Nazis. 'I feel that I am Russian although my mother is Ukrainian. We can't live in the same country as the Nazis', says one Russian separatist. Russian claims of an undercurrent of Ukrainian fascism are also explored, with some evidence of a fringe underground movement existing. However to what degree was that fomented by 8 years of Russian occupation in the breakaway republics of Donetsk and Luhansk?