Getting into a debate about culpability over the deaths of the Polish farmers last month from an errant AA missile (because I hate myself apparently), and I'm wondering if this analogy makes sense:

If a burglar is breaking into a home with a gun and a responding police officer hits the nextdoor neighbor's cat as he drives to the scene, who do we "blame" for the cat's death? Obviously the officer mistakenly killed the cat but the situation would've never unfolded if the burglar wasn't threatening the safety of that home. The burglar (Russia) kicked off the chain of events by breaking into the home (invading Ukraine).

I'm not sure why I get drawn into these arguments but it brings up an interesting moral/legal thought experiment I guess? There's probably much smarter legal minds that could explain culpability better than I can.