Given that Russia could always go scorched earth on Ukraine with heavy bombing campaigns like NATO countries do on their targets, they could have made Ukraine "fall" within days if destruction was their aim. We should all be thankful that their approach has been less brutal and barbaric than those of the EU, UK, and US.

We are now seeing small-scale examples of what was always on the table re: the Ukrainian power grid. It could have been gone literally overnight at any point in the last 2+ years.

It has been clear for some time that the RF is resigned to a slow meat grinder for Ukrainian troops, as any real negotiations were taken off the table by Ukraine's real masters in the US and Europe.