If the Russians are so incompetent on the battlefield, how is it that they are winning? Taking Kherson and Mariupol were the key moves that established the land bridge to the Crimean penninsula, which was certainly the key strategic goal of the attack. The Russians have taken all of Luhansk and are still chipping away at Donetsk. The Ukranian counter attack in Kherson seems mainly intent on blowing up their own bridges.

Take a second and consider that the evil Putin knew the limitations of his army and launched the attack anyway, burning up his T-72s and T-80s in a feint at Kyiv. It drew the Ukrainian forces north and the Russians grabbed Kherson and besieged Mariupol, securing the land bridge.

Putin is hiring mercenaries who are always kinda prone to war crimes. I bet they are paid in gold because Russia has a lot of it. Using mercenaries instead of conscripts relieves pressure from the Russian population. They will also be harder to bring to trial for war crimes in the unlikely event that the Russians will be brought to account for them. You don't have the name of a single war crimes suspect in your essay by the way, other than Putin.

Listen to what the Ukranians are saying now. This conflict is going to go on a long, long time. It will be conducted at about the same level as the Donbass conflict since 2015, basically with static trench warfare and lobbing shells at each other, and except in Donetsk that's where it is now. Let's say the Ukranians actually retake Kherson. They would have to launch a combat water assault to cross the Dnipro River to go any further into the land bridge because they blew up the bridges. The Ukranian Army has never launched a major offensive in its history, let alone the most difficult type. At some point they will have to sit down and talk to the Russians, or they will live under martial law and fear of a Kalibr missle for the rest of their lives.