Jack, I would argue that creating and supporting puppet governments is less bad than invading all of your neighbors and directly being in charge of the attrocities. I would like your opinion on this article. https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2023/1/24/how-western-scholars-overlooked-russian-imperialism

Also I shouldn't have to explain this but my man. WWII total war. Technically speaking, if your country was involved in the conflict, you were a military Target . Was the firebombing of Dresden a war crime? Was the firebombing of Tokyo a war crime? Total war is not nice. However, there is a difference between bombing, a civilian population that works at the factories and the factories and just bombing civilian targets. Hiroshima and Nagasaki were flattened much the same as the damage incurred by the firebombing race preceding them targeting war material and infrastructure All up and down the Japanese coasts in order to soften the country for a potential brutal invasion.

I would also remind you that every one of America's imperial wars for the last 100 years has directly been because of our ambitions clashing with Russia's and the fallout afterwards.