Russia has revised its Ukraine war strategy to focus on trying to take control of the Donbas and other regions in eastern Ukraine with a target date of early May, according to several US officials familiar with the latest US intelligence assessments.
Everyone with some common sense knew this was going to happen the moment the Ukrainians started handing out weapons to civilians. Even if these civilians were not actual combatants, the Russian soldiers would have to always treat them as potential ones as a matter of self preservation.
Note I am not at all trying to justifying killing of civilians or excusing the Russian side here, but simply stating the facts of how such things happen in insurgency situations.