It's all about timing. You have to declare victory when you have actually won. In the first gulf war, we declared victory with no occupation and no annexed territory, and there was zero doubt who won the war. We could have done the same in Gulf War 2. But Bush Jr chose "De-Baathification", where anyone who was a member of Saddam's Baath party was to be arrested (Baath = Arab Nazi), and changing their entire form of government from Baathist to western style democracy.
Russia has decided to follow our model of Gulf War 2, and are doing it far worse that Bush 43 did.
No, timing doesn’t matter. You just leave. Why embarrass yourself more?