You can have empathy while still taking the punitive steps that need to be taken on the country as a whole.
The debate is on what steps "need to be taken". I don't take it as gospel that sanctions which will mostly affect non-war-engaging people are one of those steps, yet I am not sure what evidence any sanctions-supporting people have that it really works.
If I believe that would help, I would only be concerned with their immediate reduction of war-faring capability and replacement of their government with a more reasonable one, but none of that seems likely to be achieved with sanctions. And I hope we are not in this for the long run, because I am pretty confident Russian army can keep this up for a number of years.
FWIW, I would hope for the same in regards to all the countries in the world: for their governments to be more reasonable, to do less lying, and to start no wars.
I’m concerned with all time scales in this situation. And I think steep economic sanctions can be relevant to all of them.
Whether you ascribe to it or not a lot of people (in the west, especially) have been jolted into now seeing this conflict through an ideological lens. That means long term strategic steps are being put into play. There is a lot more being considered now than just the short term, though I think most everyone also wants the immediate war to resolve with minimal loss of life — and I don’t see those twin goals as being in conflict at this point in time.