My take was that it might very well have been real. If Putin is trying to occupy and install his own local administrations, the worse thing he could do would be to blow away local old folks with the cameras rolling. So I am sure that the order was given was to not intimidate, but arrest the mayor’s who would not join the ‘movement’. My point was though, that the media (in this case Fox) found something that fit their narrative: the young Russian soldiers were poorly trained, didn’t believe in the mission, and we’re stopped by yelling geriatric Ukrainians (the implication being that the Brave Zelenskyy was going to chase them out of the country and the Russian Emire is going to fall. The media is narrating their own war. I saw it during Vietnam. Don’t believe anything you hear from this Government or the Media. We don’t know the real facts.
Grandma and grandpa there certainly didnt know what those poor boys in uniform were going to do, or what orders were given. Lots of poor lads in uniform have done savage things under stress. Of course it was used for propaganda, its good propaganda. But its real anyway.