Well, you missed an obvious slam-dunk here. The Ukrainian civilian casualties are low because 25% of them are Russians. Duh.

In fact, that % is even higher in those areas where the fighting is taking place. Remember, everything East of the Dnieper is Russophile - these are the "Slavic brothers" that Putin talks about. The people living West of the Dnieper are what the Russians call "the Germans", but that is not where the fighting is taking place.

The number one reason cited by Russians for why their country is at war is to "protect the Russians living in the LPR/DPR". While the geopolitical and strategic reasons like "de-Nazification" and "de-militarisation" figure largely in Putin's declared justification for the SMO, it was the idea that ethnic Russians were being slaughtered in the Donbas that outraged and then mobilised the Russian people to support the Operation in Ukraine.

In short, the Russian people are not going to buy the old American military adage: "we had to destroy the village in order to save it".