I mean, if a foreign army is fighting for you you're probably going to praise them regardless. What are you going to do? Diss them in front of the whole world, potentially offending the country the army belongs to causing them to cut relations with you, while sending the message to every other country that help will not be appreciated? I know very little about the Russia/Ukraine thing but whatever your opinion on it is, IMO this means very little one way or the other.

I don't see any description of said conduct in the article. What is he referring to?

“send more cannon fodder”