About Mistral warships : Our foreign affairs minister remembers UK that the City host numerous russian oligarchs bank accounts...
About politic at Kiev : The Porochenko gvt is under Igor Kolomoîski influence. That's why he can't negociate any cease-fire. Pravy Sektor push to drive his "patriotic war".
Also, Porochenko is misinformed by his secret services and his military staff (under Pentagon influence). They let him think that Slaviansk was a victory, but it was just a tactical retreat of the rebels.
Even Alexander Turchinov admited being misinformed by his secret services while he was in charge. By Valentin Nalyvaichenko, who worked at Washington last years. Also, the CIA has his office in the SBU building.
About Ukrainian army : The National Guard (mostly infiltrated by Pravy Sektor) is less efficient at the battlefield than in police opérations and suppression of the resistance in the occupied cities (like in Dniepropetrovsk, Kharkov and Marioupol). A lot of sabotage operations still occur in these cities.
The regular army let the surrounded army of Strelkov escaped Slaviansk. Probably because some soldiers were corrupted. It's very common that ukrainian soldiers sell their weapons and equipment just to have some money or food.
Air attack with SU-25 are like suicide attacks now, with a dramatic loss ratio (close to 50%). They almost lost the aerial dominance. But they still have rocket lauchers that blindly destroy everything. And separatists can now launch counter-artillery attacks with their own artillery.
The movment of soldier's mothers is growing in the west of Ukraine. A lot of soldier desert the army and become beggars in the Kiev's streets. They probably lost around 50 000 soldiers during the fights, instead of the official's 4500.
About Gas : After the troubles in Ukraine last years, Gasprom built 2 new gas pipeline :
Nord Stream, under Baltic Sea, toward Germany. Actually in service (since 2011).
South Sream : Under Black Sea, must supply Austria and Italy (and Bulgaria, Serbia and Hungary). Its construction was interupted by USA and EU commission (...) in Bulgaria. Bulgaria, Italy and Austria tried to resist but the US diplomacy had the last word.
The Shale Gas extraction has a high depletion ratio : around 50% the first year. That's why you need to drill new wells constantly to maintain the production. That's what we call the "Shale Bubble". It decrease strongly the price of gas on the local market (north america) and will lead to a financial crash within next 5 years.
That's why the USA need to export his gas. They pretend to "save Europe" from Russia's threat by selling their gas across the Ocean (wich is very expensive and quite impossible to do at a large scale).