They were doing the exact same thing they did in grozny and in syria. A slow, steady grind of artillery, followed up by infantry assaults to clear the rubble. Its the exact technique.
As for what i am doing? I am opposing the very Empire that wants to throw people in prison for saying that men cant get pregnant.
I dont care much about Putin or the Russia and have little interest in Russian culture. As an anglo-canadian i actually sympathise with the desire of the Ukrainians to forge an identity apart from Russia. Believe me, i understand what its like to be right next to a goliath with whom you share intimate political, cultural and linguistic ties that considers you to be its backyard.
What i want to see is the defeat of the Rainbow Empire, because its defeat is a precondition of my liberation and your liberation as well. The Rainbow Empire wants to turn the entire planet into one big gay disco of rootless consumerbots dominated by an omnipresent crowd sourced panopticon and throw everyone who dissents into a prison.
If the Empire wins this war, its power grows and things get far worse for us. If it loses, it grows weaker and more discredited. So i stand with Russia.
As for Russia?
They went into this completely unprepared. They did not prepare for a large long campaign, instead they gambled on a quick blitz and lost.
Unlike the USA, Russia didnt spend most of the years since ww2 in constant warfare. They were inexperienced and it showed. Then they spent 6 months trying to figure out what to do, and in september finally decided to go for the gusto and began to properly mobilise. All the time since then has been Russia pressing the reset button, mobilising and applying its lessons learned.
Russia was never 'losing'. What you saw as Ukrainian victory was just the up and down on a graph. But the trend line bends towards russian victory. Russia is pursuing a military and economic strategy. Ukraine is pursuing a media strategy in the hopes of foreign intervention or some miracle.
How would america have fared in this? It depends on them neutralising Ukraines air defenses. w/o its unlimited air power it would struggle too. The USA does not have the artillery power that Russia has. They would be much better on the tactical level, the legacy of the GWOT, but on the operational level? I think they would have struggled a great deal if the Ukrainians were being backed to same level by an outside power. The USA has not fought a mechanised and industrialised opponent since Korea.
Everyone forgets that in 2006 Israel fought, and could not decisively defeat a much weaker opponent that was heavily dug in and made liberal use of anti-tank rockets. War has changed. And we are seeing now how war has changed.
Far too many Americans suffer from desertstormitis. The American victories over Iraq were just the modern version of Victorian era Redcoats with gatling guns mowing down native tribesmen. Nothing more.
And just FYI, I am no edgy teen. My roots in this place go back to the era when spacebattles was still about fan movies of spacebattles.