I agree with the first part that Russia isn’t doing as bad as portrayed, but why would they deliberately want us to think that they are doing bad? What does Russia have to gain from making us think they’re doing poorly? Nothing that i can think of.
Prevent a massive NATO arms buildup.
Well, I keep saying that if Ukraine is doing so great, the obviously don’t need our help. So if it is a psyop by Russia, maybe it’s to feed the “let’s stay out of Ukraine” argument. But that seems like a stretch in terms of a reason.