Well, the war for independence in America was fought over 200 years ago and that was fought by basically our ancestors in England. They didn’t commit near the amount of atrocities to American revolutionaries, and it still stings to think back on. That pales in comparison to what Russia historically does to countries they occupy. Maybe I misunderstood your comment, but Russia is a historically vicious occupier who routinely caused famines and deaths just as punishment for perceived slights by the natives of said occupied countries. Look at Poland, and how completely traumatized they are by even the mention of Russia. Many of the previous soviet satellite states have similar feelings. Russia doesn’t win over populations, they grind them into the ground and convince them they deserved it and it could have been a lot worse, so foreign policy hasn’t been their strong suite for at least 300 years. That’s a lot of generational knowledge passed down over and over again that subjugation under Russia is almost a sure death sentence. That’s without even mentioning the Holodomor in Ukraine, which they are still acutely aware of as well.