[jammies]

Russia has already lost the war, even if Ukraine ultimately loses as well. Putin might be ok with hundreds of thousands of casualties, but the vast amounts of equipment destroyed is not so easily replaced, nor can Russia's prestige be recovered. Russia is no longer a credible conventional military threat to the West, for its armed forces can't even project decisive power into an immediate neighbour.

The strategy of making Europe dependent on Russian gas, and thus theoretically unable to resist Russian policy, ended up an utter failure. Rather than achieving Putin's other goal of dividing and neutralizing the West with a quick victory and enforced European helplessness, the war has reinvigorated and expanded NATO, and sidelined the regimes inside the EU sympathetic to Russian interests. That the West can send its extra equipment and spare change to Ukraine and frustrate Putin's ambitions shows how weak Russia has become, and so Russia has lost, and whatever they might salvage with a "victory" will still leave them in a far worse position than they were pre-invasion.

Best thing for Russia would be for Putin to die or be overthrown, and have his replacement reconcile with the West, as the other option is becoming a de facto Chinese client state. Either way, the dream of re-establishing a Russian empire is dead.