It is almost like that attacks like this are done to damage the image of Russia.
1. If its really done by the Russians, then they were probably thinking "How can we make the world hate us more, give foreign mass media the chance the demonize us better and make the boycots and embargoes worse so our economy will be more devastated."
2. If its staged by the Ukrainians, than its really top level propaganda.
Like in Bucha, why should the Russians execute civillians for fun, and why should they tie the hands of the civillians on the backs first, then shoot them in an executing way, to finally keep the bodies on the street, in order to let the world know that they have done these warcrimes?
Any way, if its was carried out by the Russians, with approval from Moskva, then why do they also give foodpackages and humanitarian aid to the civillians in other cities? And why didn't they go with a full invasion without thinking about civilian casualties/collateral damage (WW II way of war)?
And if its not done by the Russians, why didn't they condemn such horrible acts instead of just denying and coming with unrealistic sounding explanations/accusations?
The Russian authorities will not admit error or wrongdoing, even if to do so would help their image in the west. Russian soldiers are saving Russia, Ukraine & the world from the drug-addicted neo-Nazi murderers running Ukraine (all things said in public by Putin, or in Russian official statements). This story is for their domestic audience. It is expected to be believed not because it is true, but because belief in it shows loyalty to the government. Contradicting it is close to treason. It can be punished by 15 years in prison. Again, that's official, & published. It's a new law.
Russian soldiers are reported to have been told that any car being driven up to a checkpoint could be a car bomb, & that everywhere in Ukraine is full of Nazis.
The giving of food & other aid is done in front of cameras, in what appear to be carefully staged photo-ops.
All the information we have suggests that they didn't go all-out from the start because they didn't expect significant resistance. They expected Ukraine to collapse almost immediately. It was supposed to be a walk in the park. They made exactly the same mistake in 1939, when they invaded Finland. They believed their own propaganda. It worked in Czechoslovakia in 1968, didn't it? All the times it didn't are the exceptions: the one success is the rule. They even had a triumphal press release ready to put out, & putting it online wasn't cancelled in time, so it was briefly (but long enough to be downloaded a few times) on the net, before being taken down.
Why did they leave the bodies in the street in Bucha (& elsewhere)? Maybe to terrorise the locals into obedience. Maybe they were just so demoralised & undisciplined that nobody ordered them to be removed, or if orders were given, they were ignored. They didn't leave all the bodies, in Bucha or elsewhere. They cleared some away & buried them, but quickly & carelessly. They burned some, but amateurishly & haphazardly. There are part-burned bodies in the streets, with tyres or other things heaped on them to help them burn. Some bodies have been piled up & burned. Some cars seem to have been set alight with bodies in them.
The crude, haphazard & hurried attempts to burn bodies suggest disorganisation, & perhaps an attempt to clear up immediately before the withdrawal, with fires being set but no waiting to see if they took. The chaotic & filthy state of some Russian camps also suggests demoralisation, disorganisation & indiscipline.
It all looks as if the troops were ill-prepared for what they encountered & that in many areas that led to a collapse in discipline. Soldiers were distracted by looting, initially because they were hungry (but it developed into large-scale pillaging, e.g. loading lorries with washing machines & driving them to Belarus), were disoriented & frightened by the unexpected resistance, the missiles that come out of nowhere & blow up their vehicles, snipers trying to pick out officers, & the hostility of the local people. And they weren't punished for shooting people, or stealing from them, so there was nothing to stop them taking out their fear or frustration on those unfriendly civilians. And once you've started & aren't punished, such things can snowball.
The Russian leadership certainly didn't expect the unified response they got. They're probably shocked & scared, & not sure what to do. I've no idea if they're right, but a few people claim to have detected stress in Putin's voice in his public announcements since early March. I suspect that they didn't have a plan to deal with sanctions on the scale that's occurred, any more than they had a plan to deal with military setbacks, or the quantity or quality of military aid that's been given to Ukraine.
Putin et al have been a bit like headless chickens still running around.
