“I didn’t want the war to be in MY country!”

You are underplaying the struggles of civilians in a war zone just because they happen to live on the wrong side of the border.

Civilians have all the rights to not want war on their country, at their doors, no matter which side of the border they are, and they are allowed to lament the incompetency of a government that hides critical information from them in an attempt to cover up its failures.

The Ukrainians have the right to keep fighting, and I hope they win this war. Putin is a criminal and he must pay for his crimes. This doesn’t mean that civilians caught in the crossfire are being petty.

A lot of Russians support the war, though. Those deserve what they’re getting. And they’re very lucky it’s the Ukrainians invading them, not the Russians.

A lot of Russians have no idea what’s going on. Rural communities get their information from state media and their local politicians.

I remember people in rural areas of my East European country being interviewed about politics and they were completely clueless. Some thought the president was still the same guy who was violently overthrown in bloody revolution over a decade before. Many would vote for whoever their mayor told them to vote for. I remember someone being asked why she’s voting for someone and her answer was “because he’s the president” (he was running for a second term). She honestly didn’t know how it all works and found it natural to vote for the president, not some other guy.

So yeah, if people like that are told those guys are oppressed and we sent an army to liberate them, they’ll believe it and support the war. That doesn’t mean they deserve to be victims of that war.