> It seems that the Russian soldiers are making efforts to avoid attacking civilians directly

This is my take as well.

The obvious contrast is their handling of Kiev versus how they utterly flattened Grozny.

It's clear to me that in the early days Russia was hoping for a quick and decisive win. They'd decapitate the government, install a puppet regime, and then hope the public would roll over.

That hasn't happened and we're now entering a much more bloody phase of indiscriminate bombing/shelling of the civilian population.