Hi, just wanted to say CMSF was a lovely game, and I'm happy to see Battlefront is still ongoing all those years later.
Denazification has been taken by many people as only referring to Azov and the far-right in Ukraine, but that is ignoring Russian rhetoric, which has been casting the Ukrainian government as Nazis since before the war, and hyping up Ukrainian military buildup and evolution as a dagger at the separatist republics. The rhetoric also declares the Zelensky government illegitimate representatives of the Ukrainian people whom Russia is overthrowing. During the early part of the war, Russia called on the Ukrainian military to overthrow the Kyiv government and facilitate peace talks, seemingly in complete ignorance of the reality of the resolve of Ukraine. Considering how badly Russia has misjudged Ukraine and its resolve, it's important to note while it is "propaganda" in a sense, Russia's government probably believed in it enough to have disastrously underestimated Ukrainian resistance. It's also important to note people predicting Russia was not going to invade fully, probably downplayed or did not take seriously Russian rhetoric towards Ukraine, especially domestically.
https://worldview.stratfor.com/article/unpacking-putins-denazification-ukraine-and-my-forecasting-failure
Something to note, Russian rhetoric has been extremely virulent and dangerous, as seen in the RIA state media op-ed, which represents a escalation of blame, in response to Ukrainian resistance and the shattering of the illusion of Russian troops being warmly greeted as liberators, while Russia invaded fully, it did so under a "special military operation", important to emphasize that the newer rhetoric accuses the majority of the Ukrainian population as Nazis, tainted and needing to be "cleansed" and its important if Russia intends on pursuing the conflict in a longer term to use more dangerous rhetoric to justify mobilization.
