>>Russian men are many things we can criticize, but don’t call them wusses,<<
They are not wusses, but I doubt you could call them highly motivated.
The Ukrainians are defending their homes. The Russian enlisted, most probably just want to go home in one piece. That makes a difference.
Some are some are not. as I discussed above [Novorossiya (Novorossiya Governate) was part of Russia beginning in 1764, with large parts being stuffed into the Ukraine by the of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union in 1954. This is why majority swaths of the population in what was Novorossiya are Russian speaking and vote pro Russian.] What keeps western Ukraine separate culturally is that it was a part of the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth while Novorossiya was not, western Ukrane predominantly speaks Ukranian and the Holomodor had great impacts in Ukranian speaking areas west of the Dneiper and around Kiev.
So why did they have to ban all men between 18-60 from leaving the country? They’re all conscripts now.