Asides from the obvious brutality. Isn't the Russians doing this the height of stupidity?
On seeing these reports, western governments will continue to come under huge pressure to supply arms and support to Ukraine. Governments such as China and India will find their positions harder to justify and the Ukranians have not one incentive to surrender. They may as well die trying to resist
Putin has ordered the shelling of civilian targets. That is his war crime. I don't know what he's asked the soldiers to do to individual civilians in occupied areas, but I suspect a lot of the sickening scenes we're seeing are the results of evil soldiers, with poor discipline, taking the frustration of their loss at Kyiv out on the civilians nearby, rather than an order from the top. So no, it doesn't help the overall Russian effort, but that's not at the forefront of the minds of the soldiers.Well yes the whole thing makes no sense to me, but I mean specifically murdering civilians. It gains them absolutely nothing.