Although this is probably the case, those 5000ish people have made their choice, and the Ukrainian army simply can't be expected to continue to act in a way that maximises those civilians' chance of survival. If anything, they are helping the Russian army by being in the way. Really not particularly patriotic.

Be nice to legal and accounting.

Russia can't break Ukraine's spirit.

I believe more neutral analysts have estimated the number to be at least 80.000, so it's probably not too far off.

The fact that this appears to be the Russian's strategy is dumbfounding, since it is exactly what NATO would want Russia to do.

That is, to drag out the war for so long that Russia depletes its ENTIRE advanced arsenal, and for so long that hundreds of thousands of young Russians will die in the process, which will permanently weaken Russia from a demographic point of view.

The only logical conclusion for why Russia is currently doing what it is doing is that continuing down this path is in Vladimir Putin's personal interest, but with the probable end-game in sight, I fail to see how the status quo of dragging out the war is really that advantageous to him personally.

So more likely, the current strategy that Russia is pursuing is probably what Vladimir Putin thinks is in it own best interests based on the incorrect information he is being fed about the situation on the ground.