I think you miss my point
Ever since the beginning of the conflict I have been asking, where are the Ethnic Russian militants of the sort that started the Donbas uprisings in the other Russian parts of the country? They were savagely repressed at the time and failed to rise as most expected when the Russians started their special military operation on Feb 24th.
In the meantime we have seen the punishment beatings and humiliations handed out to Russian speakers (and other minorities) throughout the country. Add to this the growing awareness of a human shields policy and now punishment killings of ethic Russians as suspected collaborators in re-occupied towns such as Bucha, this could be the spark that reignites widespread sectarian conflict between Ethnic Russian and Non Ethnic Russian Ukrainians. Such a conflict would rage separate to the front lines of the National Armies and continue to be waged, long after the National Conflict is brought to an end.
Anybody who grew up in the UK during the "troubles" in Northern Ireland will know what I am talking about, except the Ukraine will make Northern Ireland look like a Vicars Tea Party.
Oh sorry, I thought it was about Russians and Ukrainians. I didn't know the definition of "sectarian". But I agree with your points, I've seen videos of Ukrainian military threatening civilians that supported Russia, and killing those that collaborated with them.
I've been following the pro-Russian users in twitter, and they talked about the Ukrainian military publishing videos showing corpses or victims with white band on their arm, which signifies their support for Russia and to identify as a friendly to Russian troops. Those videos may serve another purpose to spread fear to the collaborators and sympathizers in Ukraine.
It seems like the leader of Ukraine is still trying to suppress them through fear, and since they are going to that lengths just to do so, could meant that the ethnic tensions/divide are pretty significant.
This could be why Putin chose not to start the operation hard, and still holding onto the soft approach. Maybe one of the goal is to somehow save those ethnic Russians through evacuation after capturing the villages/city.
