(added later) For the context, I'm Russian. Right now, there's a refugee family from Mariupol (you know, that city in Donbass that got almost completely destroyed) living in one of my two flats. They lost all they had. They lived in a damp basement with nearly no food for a month and a half. They buried their neighbors personally, and also the school teacher of their kid. A marauder wannabe nearly shot them, and then his commander nearly did the same after they complained, for "lying about his soldiers". Their son lost a hand after a tank shell hit their home. If you're also in Russia, we can connect and you'll see them in person, to look the kid in the eye and tell him about the suffering of Donbass people.
It's not Russia killing their own people. It's Russia killing some unlucky pawns, whether in staged attacks or by forcibly "mobilizing" all the men they find there and sending them into the meat grinder.
To me Russia seems on a mission to capture as much territory from Ukraine they can and punish and destroy everything they can't capture. To cross the borders, Russia NEEDED a pretext and in order to justify their further destruction they continue to need these pretexts and I think they manufacture them - killing civilians in DNR and LNR. Ukraine does not need pretexts to defend itself nor to recover its legal territories. And yes, I think Putin personally is capable of nuclear false flag if that would enable him to achieve his objectives in Ukraine. He already sacrificed thousands of troops and billions in materials for some lame territorial gains he's not even able to hold. Putin would easily nuke 50k of his men if that would guarantee him Ukraine and remaining in power.
Obviously yes. The whole Donbas war was started by FSB Colonel and bunch of irregular troops coming from russia. Russia's post-2014 strategy was to destroy Ukraine from inside, by prolonged conflict. This backfired, and Ukraine united instead of being divided, like before 2014 by russian agents like Medvedchuk or Yanukovych.
>destroying their own pipelines and bridges
Only relevant destruction of pipelines and bridges before 24.02 was done by retreating FSB led irregular russian troops in 2014.
Or are you talking about Ukraine attacking valid military targets as crimean bridge now? https://twitter.com/Flash_news_ua/status/1554869316935471105
>only to use it as an excuse to bomb infrastructure in the Ukraine?
They mostly bomb civilian infrastructure and dwellings, not military one because their intelligence and precision missles sucks.
>By that logic, I assume Russia will soon drop a nuclear bomb in Sankt Petersburg in order to have an excuse to continue their operation in the Ukraine.
They will need to do stuff like this only if they continue to lose, not with nuclear or so. Russia and especially Putin is known for targeting it's own citizen to cause war frenzy - that's how he got elected and caused war, by bombing Moscow. Google "ryazan sugar".