I found this via Cassad and think it will be very helpful in burning the latest propaganda and PR. It is a animation of the SITREP maps for the last month and comes with English Sub Titles.
[video=youtube_share;8g-l4NlR2L4]http://youtu.be/8g-l4NlR2L4[/video]
It is also worth remembering that the main Urban areas of Donetsk/Lugansk hold about 5 million people. This is an area of Heavy Industry and Heavy Engineering.
This means that there is a large male physically strong workforce, many of whom have basic military training and are used to working with/maintaining heavy industrial/mechanical equipment. These kinds of guys adapt to military needs very quickly and such areas in all countries are considered primary military recruiting ground.
It is true that relatively small numbers showed any initial interest in joining the militia. I think we can safely assume that this changed in July when the full Ukrainian army arrived in force and started deliberate shelling of places of work, civilian utilities ans infrastructure and of course residential areas.
It is hardly a surprise that militia numbers have swelled dramatically since July.
I notice the words from Washington are "Russian Co-ordination". That is probably fair enough. Take this to mean Financial Support (the ability to pay forces also improved recruitment significantly), Unofficial advisor's and trainning and of course up to the minute intelligence. The notion of Russian volunteers is currently being fanfared, but we have watched video of volunteers arriving in the Donbass for months, so we can only but question why professional journalists have only just noticed.
Finally of course, to prove direct Russian military involvement must now be the only remaining possible objective still available to the West, in justify having started this whole sorry affair. I think it highly unlikely the Mr Putin will be about to casually give it to them.