I bet you can imagine Russian soldiers in that position. Why not Americans?

Not the person you were asking, but pretending as if the USian/NATO military isn’t the most vile on the planet is silly.

There are plenty of places in the US where abject poverty reigns supreme

Notably, the USian “poverty draft” is a myth.

Factor in the ever present propaganda, and their fate was never their own, sadly.

You are excusing grown-ass monsters’ atrocities because they bought the propaganda as if they had no mind of their own to think that killing foreigners for oil is bad.