I think a good chunk of Russian history could be summed up as "...And Then it Got Worse." While it's easy to say "Russia bad, Ukraine good", that sort of forgets that there are normal Russians out there dying in terrible conditions who did not sign up for this at all.

Intercepted calls from Russian soldiers talk about the conditions they're fighting in.
https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/ukraine-crisis-intercepts/