What did Russia just do? It had made an ambitious attempt to encircle a large are in Donbas and succeeded with the effort in just a few days. The Ukrainian army threw everything it had available into the cauldron and lost thousands of men while the Russian army avoided direct men against men fighting to minimize its own casualties. There is absolutely no reason to believe that the Russian forces are not able to repeat the process over and over.
[moonofalabama.org]