I suspect that Russia was smart enough to know that Ukrainian “Photo Ops” would be attempted just prior to Russia’s election in a few days, so they slowed their liberation of the remaining areas of Donbass and instead doubled-up (or more) at the border and thus the Ukrainians were the ones who got the surprise, as they ‘liquidated’.
Are you saying that the Russians set their own refineries on fire, and crashed the IL-71 on purpose?