It's hilarious how the entire Ukraine army cannot capture 1 (one) city with about a hundred "terrorists".
With all due respect Sergarr, a lot of countries would have problems re-capturing cities held by armed personnel when they are under constant pressure by a bigger neighboring country that threatens military intervention if they take any action against said armed personnel. Especially if this bigger country has a sizable military force amassed along your borders to back it's threats.
And especially if said bigger country do not recognize those armed personnel as such but rather brand them as civilians. I could be wrong on this one though. Feel free to provide a source when any Russian official called those armed people "non-civilians" or such, I would honestly welcome this info.
Clothes do not a man military make. If anything, military people in civilian clothing are much more dangerous.
I do agree that he has some apparel that I wouldn't expect to see on a "retrofitted civilian" (what looks like a radio on the back of his belt is suspect), but for the most part all he's got are unmarked military fatigues, a cheap flak vest and a rocket launcher. Being objective here - you can't tell whether the guy is a soldier or an armed civilian, and what country he's opposing, if any. The picture does its best to provide context, but all it does is play into the bias of the viewer - people see what they want to see, not what is shown. The nature of the current political military (can't call it any other way) means that actual combatants on either side will do their best not to look like anything.
True, there is still no absolute evidence this armed people are any sort of professional military. A lot of speculation, yes, but let's play the devil's advocate and say we can't be certain until any major player in this game actually confirms those people were trained by them. Even then, if for example, these people are willing volunteers trained and supplied by Russian government, one
could still argue they are not military until they officially declare allegiance to some form of established, recognized authority. Strictly speaking.
Still, question remains - how do you classify those people? Freedom fighters? Self-defense units? Terrorists? I can't say they are civilians, sorry. If anything, they fall under "militia" definition. Or weapon enthusiasts, heh? Downing a helicopter is a bit of an accomplishment for seemingly untrained, popular-revolution types.