There is breathless reporting today on a missile strike that (very sadly) killed many people in a village in Ukraine. The reporting says it was very likely the Russians who launched the missile. Let's use some critical thinking skills (i.e., common sense):
1. The village is in eastern Ukraine (i.e., the area heavily populated by ethnic Russians). I didn't hear this mentioned in the breathless BBC reporting that came on my radio.
2. Does this mean Putin is killing his own people? Or he is doing a false-flag operation intended to make the ethnic Russians think the Ukrainians are purposely killing civilians?
3. The people killed are reportedly civilians. Note: it turned out that previous reports of civilians being killed, were actually meetings of Ukrainian and NATO military advisers, but this was quietly swept under the rug later.
4. What military advantage does Putin get by killing civilians, especially Russian civilians but for that matter even non-Russian civilians? This one is easy: none. Actually, it just makes his job harder by inflaming people for counter-insurgency. Putin may be brutal, but he's not dumb.
5. Do Russian missiles ever go off target accidentally? Do Ukrainian air-defense missiles ever go off target accidentally? These are questions I didn't hear asked in the BBC reporting.
6. Do Ukrainian air-defense missiles ever get used on purpose offensively to cause incidents intended to make Putin look like a thug? I leave that one for the reader to contemplate. I mean who is more likely to be killing ethnic Russian civilians, Putin or Zelensky, especially when Zelensky sure could use a boost in his foreign funding right now? Does this seem like the time for Putin to be doing stupid things like bombing civilians when it looks like Zelensky's funding is about to dry up and about the only thing that would turn that around is some kind of stupid bombing of civilians by Putin?
7. Watch out for gas attacks next or God forbid, tactical nukes. The gas attacks are the one they used on Assad in Syria a few years ago, which were later debunked. Again, pretty much the only thing Assad could have done to encourage foreign intervention against him. Really, like I said above, these leaders certainly are brutal but certainly again they aren't stupid.
Just some questions that come to mind when reading things like this. Propaganda is used by all sides in a war. Be careful how you read these things.