comment: >
  
  It only works if there's already dissent for whomever is in power before the war and the attackers can be viewed as a sort of liberator.
  I don't think Russia honestly thinks the people of Western Ukraine would ever willingly concede to them. Even at the start of the invasion a lot of rumblings were about letting Lviv remain as the sole "independent" Ukraine with everything east of the mountains becoming occupied. This is just taking out the frustrations of Russia's ineffectiveness on the people of Ukraine.
context: They want a humanitarian crisis and weaken morale inside Ukrainian society. >
  
  It’s literally never worked before. People get angry and then go back to work, production increases sometimes. Even in Japan after the nukes and Tokyo fire bombings, the population never cracked.