Have the Russians been effective in this war?
In fact, torturing children is exactly what one would expect of evil, stupid, incompetent soliders like Russia has been deploying.
Mass rape and murder has been what Russians always have done in warfare. Behaving like civilized human beings would highly atypical of Russian soldiers.
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And of course the Ukrainians are bunch of liars too. Why wouldn't they?
I think it is always a good idea to remember who writes history, which is not just the winners, but the leadership of countries/cultures.
I have a somewhat unique perspective having grown up hearing first hand accounts of WW2 from the other side. I heard a lot of good stories about US soldiers from immediately after Germany's surrender, but also heard plenty of first hand accounts of American atrocities during the war, including against civilians.
Just like US historical and political literature is full of "bad Russians", of which there were plenty. One of my Uncles related to me far worse atrocities by Russian soldiers against Germans than by US soldiers. There are good and honorable Russians, both civilian and soldier, as well.
Interestingly, I just finished a history book titled "The Wolf" by Richard Guilliatt and Peter Hohnen. It's about a WW1 German Raider ship, decked out like a freighter, whose job it was to lay mines and capture and sink enemy freighters. The ship had to take prisoners (note that they took prisoners vs sinking enemy ships with all hands), which, given merchant vessels of the time, occasionally included women and children. One American captain, with his family onboard* was taken by the Wolf. He related how he was deathly afraid of the German "apes" (as depicted in US and British propaganda), who were known for horrendous crimes against their enemy. Instead of torture and death, one of the German officers gave up his quarters for the captain, his wife, and their child. The little girl had the run of the ship, to the delight of the German sailors.
So history is certainly not concrete or black and white.
*The captain of the German ship, when interviewed, had said that had he known that the American captain had his wife and daughter on board, would never have captured the freighter. The taking of prisoners was to keep the crews of captured ships from blabbing about the German secret mission and giving away his position during his year long mission.
Edit: American merchant captain, not British merchant captain.