The sentence, handed down by a Russian court, is a rare example of the country holding its troops to account for war crimes.
www.bbc.com
Article says:
1: "the trial was held behind closed doors."
2: "the family was murdered for refusing to give up their house to the Russian troops."
3: Only "two soldiers" were prosecuted & sentenced.
"Two soldiers" cannot pointblank execute a family. Soldiers follow orders.
Hence, the soldiers are scapegoats. Putin is protecting his generals. Also, pointblank execution of a whole family for refusing to give up its house WAS A HORRIFIC THREAT to all other families daring similar thoughts. Massacre occurred "just weeks" after the invasion. Putin and his generals deemed it essential to secure the success of the invasion in the early days.
What probably happened is that the father and/or other male seniors of the family were stubborn in refusing to leave the house and hand it over to the Russian army. One thing probably led to another. Russians couldn't leave children as witnesses of what has transpired so that the whole family was executed. Beyond words horrific.
It could have perhaps been an act of a single, rogue general. But why would then Putin protect him and prosecute and sentence just the two soldiers. Truly disgusting and horrific.
It was a family of nine. With children. They had a birthday celebration when the army showed up. That might seem weird that they held a birthday celebration but Ukrainian and Russian people are similar, their languages are very similar too. The family probably didn't suspect such grave, grave actions could occur.
ps And Putin does this what you can see below to start psychologically manipulating Trump. As a KGB operative, Putin is huge on that stuff. That's how he works. Psychological manipulation of others especially on the basis of some "dirt" he holds about them:
Russian TV has shown nude images of Melania Trump as it congratulated her husband for his US presidential victory.
www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk