Russia's rotten downfall is impressive to watch. I'm Ukrainian/Armenian who grew up in Russia in the 80s, I had always assumed that the military would at least stay relevant when the economy isn't. It's just been the pride of the country for centuries and to some extent even ingrained in Russian DNA that I could not see that changing going forward. I had grandparents and uncles in the Soviet military and I saw the pride in them. Now we see the bottom completely fall out as it's become eroded by decades of preposterous corruption. You have to be one special piece of shit to destroy such legacy and to find a reason, whatever it might be, to attack what I consider their own blood relatives in Ukraine.
Amen, brother. As someone who belonged, when you put on the chest your AKM, take that red folder and say "Торжественно клянусь" - you swear to protect those people no matter what. And when you turn you weapon on them ... I don't expect russian military men to read HN and understand English :-), but anyway - once you turn your weapon on civilians, you may take those epaulets, stick them up your ass and hope nobody can find you. But they will.
The USSR lost 20 million people in WWII. Their historical level of acceptable losses is high.