All I'm saying is that the Russian military is doing that, not its citizenry. There is a difference. And the Ukrainian soldiers would do - have done - the same when they were in the Russian army during Soviet times. The problem is the discipline (lack of) in the Russian army and the way of conscription and lack of morals in leadership.
I say, somewhat jokingly but mostly seriously, that there is still a lot of Mongolian/Genghis Khan influence flying around in Russian military behavior and on full display. When I was a kid I was reading some WW2 history and noticed that when the germans surrendered -often by full divisions and batallions- that the german officer negotiations often required that they would be allowed to surrender to the Americans- and not the Russians. Even though I was quite young, the L.E.D. light on my forehead starting flickering from yellow to red and I thought "whoa, not feeling the love there." The Americans and the Russians should be friends- we should not be fighting. Also, and I may get some hate mail on this and that is fine, but the Americans and the Iranian people should be friends too and we should not be fighting. I am not naive though, and I would nuke the motherfuckers in a micro-second if I thought they were going to do it first. Just saying there is goodness amongst the peoples as well. "Can't we all just get along." - Rodney King
Way to go Vlad. Keeping the Jonestown spirit alive in Moscow. Putin says Russia will achieve 'noble' aims in Ukraine "Its goals are absolutely clear and noble," Putin said. "We didn't have a choice. It was the right decision." https://www.reuters.com/world/europ...aine-talks-with-belarusian-leader-2022-04-12/
Russia has covered itself in blood and won't be able to wash it off for a couple of generations at least - and that is if they make some effort towards becoming a normal country, which I doubt very much. People point to Germany and say "look, they were Nazis but now a prosperous, regular and respected country" but forget that it took complete and utter defeat and destruction of the country and a period of intense ideological brainwashing to accomplish that goal. That won't happen to Russia, because of its nuclear weapons. So it is destined to become a bigger North Korea, a pariah, backwards, shunned by most of the civilized world and bleeding out any citizens with two neurons to rub together. I am glad most of my friends left. Some are still stuck and hopefully will leave soon.
My wife is still missing one very good friend. She lives in Bucha... Already a few weeks no sign of life.
Indeed and ditto for Japan. In addition to the total defeats in both of those countries. there was the important fact that post-war landscapes there involved continued presence of Americans and other countries either in the form of outright occupation governments or just military and business- which created some problems but was also the foundation of some very good futures to come as well. Of course a lot of that was related to the desire to not just have those countries go back to normal life sulking and pissed off and gobbled up by the soviet influence so that made the Americans a little more forgiving and generous than one might think. We danced with the devil/Soviets in the war because we had to but there was no love there for the government. Russia is not going to be welcoming any post war influence for sure so it will more likely be doing the hermit kingdom routine, lobbing out missiles occasionally per the North Korea model. The Americans would like to have something positive going in that region, but that's what is Ukraine is for. Ukraine - if it survives- will get billions in Marshall Plan type funds- and only about thirty cents on the dollar will actually end out going to the intended purpose, but, hey, just be there as a buffer against the Ruskies.
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier wanted to come to Kyiv. Zelenskyy nixed the visit, because of Steinmeier's very close ties to Russia.