>

Most likely he did bad things in the war. But one of the mysteries of evil is how evil societies get perfectly normal, apparently decent people to perform atrocities.
I'm intrigued as to what "Russia's concerns" could possibly be, and if they could potentially remedy these concerns themselves. >

From a propaganda perspective their "concern" is that Ukraine is run by "nazis." From a real perspective their concern is that Ukraine is aligning with the west rather than being a buffer zone between NATO and Russia. >

Russia is also worried about a Russian-speaking country with an intimately intertwined history, shared religious traditions, and many cross-border families cleaning up its government, modernizing its institutions, and improving the quality of life of its citizens. That's the kind of thing that might give Russian citizens dangerous "ideas" and "aspirations" and might even cause them to pursue some of that change at home. It is a lot easier to convince some random Josef that Europeans or Americans are somehow decadent, heathen, and alien than it is to convince him of the same thing about his wife's family and half of his own cousins. Russia decided that the best solution to the grass being greener on the other side of the fence was to knock down the fence and torch the yard. >

That seemed a reasonable take -- but then I kept hearing how they have successfully convinced that same random Josef that his wife's family and half of his own cousins are sub-human garbage that should be raped and slaughtered. So I don't think they're as afraid of a successful Ukraine as we think. I think Putin simply wants their resources. >

That’s the thing I keep hearing from Ukrainians with relatives on the other side though. Their cousin in St. Petersburg goes “Kill the Ukrops! Not you Sasha, you’re one of the good ones.” 
Even as the war crimes are spelled out, even as Ukrainians explain the death and destruction they have seen, the response remains “That cannot be, they are killing nazis, not good people like you.” >

I had an online gaming friend who lived in Ukraine who believed that his country was run by nazis and Russia was saving them when they first invaded. kept up that narrative for a few weeks, then said he thinks he saw Ukrainian troops dressed like russians because they killed non nazi's. then he just stopped responding to all communication. left a $5k account unused. we are pretty sure hes jailed or dead. noone just abandons an account or their friends like that. We actually had a Russian soldier in our clan too who stopped logging in 4 weeks before the invasion saying he couldn't log in for a bit. he actually joined us last minute for one of our big matches out of the blue but we haven't seen him since either. hope he isn't dead either. I know the russians are supposed to be the bad guys but he was always very nice and a good guy with us. >

Yeah every country that's "the bad guys" is normally not very bad on a 1 on 1 level with it's inhabitants. During WW2 British troops found German troops very agreeable and they would befriend them when they were prisoners pretty often. >

Anecdotal, but the former owner of our apartment, who died in the late 1990s, was a sergeant (Unteroffizier) in the Wehrmacht.
I'm not sure what exactly he did during war, but he became a POW in the US, learned English and stayed in contact with his American friends for decades after his release.