Early-on in the conflict, when Russia was doing mass missile strikes and dropping artillery across Mariupol and the like – I remember images of one missile that targeted a field of Ukrainian solar panels, probably on a generic command to hit electrical infrastructure

Russia was banking on terror itself being a weapon. The brutality of Russian soldiers on Ukrainian civilians (and especially children) underscores this. I don’t know why Russia though this would work. Ukrainians were unarmed during Euromaidan and still went up against and won against superior equipped forces.