Debunking NATO propaganda and consent manufacturing means massively massively more than your personal relationships and comfort. I don't want to hear how hard it is to be called a 'shill for Putin'. People should have already been calling you a shill for Assad, for Kim Jong Un, for Xi, for Castro or you have been fucking NEGLIGENT AS LEFTISTS. If you're in the imperial core your primary fucking duty is to anti imperialism. Clearly a lot of you haven't been doing this. Now there are possible nuclear consequences and I see a great deal of you still too fucking chicken shit to stick their necks out for people living under the thumbs of America and NATO. Investigate the situation thoroughly and have an informed, consistent take based in Marxism and historical materialism and then REPEAT IT LOUDLY AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN AND LET IT BE KNOWN THAT THE WORKERS OF THE WORLD DO NOT STAND FOR THIS. This is supposed to be a board of principled communists, act like it.
Read Combat Liberalism
I don't think there is anything wrong with taking the "Russian invasion bad" side to start with. There is so much propaganda flying around right now that many people will shut down and stop listening if you don't. But obviously you need to steer the conversation after that. The Russian invasion is bad because they fell for NATO's baiting and did exactly what NATO wanted. Never speak about Donetsk and Luhansk without including Taiwan and Hong Kong. If you go into a conversation in the imperial core today with the take that the Russian invasion is a good thing you'll just look bad and alienate people. Also, the Russian invasion actually is bad for tactical reasons if not for moral ones. I have my problems with it on moral grounds (which may or may not be because of the propaganda I've been exposed to. I am not immune to propaganda and neither are you) but I feel quite comfortable saying that the invasion is wrong just on the grounds that it has strengthened NATO.
You don't have to actually support Russia, but you should always hammer home that Russia is bad because they are doing what NATO wants, and NATO are the true villains. I live in a country that may join NATO because of this, and this is just how I have had the most success speaking to people about it. Nothing wrong with opposing the Russian invasion per se, but you might as well start discussing your favorite color. It doesn't matter what you think, and even if you're right and Russia is just being terribly awful it just distracts from the only point worth making.
Never ever get bogged down discussing Russia and Putin specifically. They are bad. They are bad because NATO...