It definitely is. But is it the main goal, a secondary goal, or opportunistic advantage made out of an unavoidable problem?
"Much less" is very different from "enough to gain surprise". Perhaps Russian internet would not be guessing it. But would that work well enough to fool US SIGINT despite the area in question certainly being of interest to it specifically for that reason?
And then there are the obvious follow up questions:
What is Russia expecting to achieve through this pressure initiative, and what is it going to do if Ukraine does not yield what is expected?
Is it opportunistic saber rattling in hope that Ukraine gets foolishly intimidated to give something up in next round of negotiations out of fear, or a last attempt to get the objectives of a military action without having to pay all the costs of taking said military action?