It is functionally identical, given the close recent history between the two countries. For that matter, all humans are close, especially at a population level. People are trying to make this too complicated. Conventional weapons are perfectly capable of doing massive damage to an army without insane amounts of collateral damage, both to civilians and allies.

Organizations like CIA have a long history of pursuing precisely these kinds of insane ideas.

The US doesnt care about sacrificing Ukrainians as long as they can hurt Russia.