The objective, I believe, is just to make it as grizzly, bloody, and awful as possible, because they have the full backing of Western media. The history books (in the West, anyway) will blame all of it on Russian aggression, and this narrative will be driven into everyone who will listen, in every region they can get their slimy tentacles into.

It's been their game plan all along, as we all know. From the very beginning they intentionally put artillery next to active schools, hid their soldiers in school buses and ambulances, and did everything in their power to maximize their own civilian death tolls, knowing Western media and audiences would blame Russia for every death that could have been easily avoided. These people are fighting for control of the region to remake it as they see fit, and for all their talk of nationalism and the Ukrainian people, they will gladly sacrifice the entire population if it lets them rule what's left to be "pure".