Was It Mere Uitility, Compassion or a Moral Booster?

As I read in Mathhew 14 today, I have to wonder if the feeding of the 5000 and later, Jesus walking on water was not as much a moral booster for the disciples as it was compassion for the hungry crowd? Think about it, he had just slipped away to pray having been given the news of John the Baptists execution. My mind then goes to the current situation in Ukraine. Why does God not just deal with Putin, in some merciful way, unlike this Putin like Herod had dealt with John the Baptist? I don't always understand human events, nor God's wisdom. I do know that the love of God balances the sovereignty of Heaven's strategy. This causes me to await the amazing God moments that will come out of the horrors of Russia's savagery. God is faithful, sovereign any yes, love wins, even when humans go off the rails.