The Russians are doing a slow creep EXACTLY BECAUSE they are casualty averse.
Besides, they have achieved their political and military objectives:
Political: block NATO accession by Ukraine.
Military: seize the more ethnic Russian areas of eastern Ukraine.
Never was it their goal to take all of Ukraine. That’s a goal post we pulled from our @ss.
Taking all of Ukraine would be a long term nightmare as Russia will have to expend vast resources in military, Intel, security forces, money over many years (probably decades) to truly gain control. No different than us in Iraq or Afghanistan where we never truly did gain complete control.
All Russia is doing now is “keeping the pressure on.” Their military campaign now serves the political end as a deal is made (having the upper hand) and to prevent Ukraine from amassing a reserve with which they can launch a true counter offensive as in late 2023. Force Ukraine to deploy their forces, keep creeping forward little by little. The longer the war rages on, the bigger of a loser Ukraine will be.
You have over 800 miles which comprises the forward edge of battle (FEBA). Ukraine cannot cover this area effectively. At this point, to keep the pressure on, Russia merely needs to continuously asses where there is a weaker area they can creep forward and push, without falling into a trap.
As to drone warfare, that goes both ways:
Russia is employing as many as 10,00 drones per day. https://www.hudson.org/missile-defense/impact-drones-battlefield-lessons-russian-ukraine-war-french-perspective-tsiporah-fried#:~:text=Other%20drone%20variants%20have%20also,A%20Tactical%20Warfare%20Revolution
Ukraine is employing about 9,000 drones per day. https://medium.com/@hayekesteloo/ukraine-deploys-9-000-drones-daily-in-staggering-scale-of-modern-warfare-cd37afbd0758
The disparity when it comes to tube artillery, MLRS, attack aviation, longer range missiles, and conventional air dropped bombs is far greater than the drone use, and to Russia’s advantage in every aspect. But sure, Russia is suffering massive casualties and Ukraine isn’t. LOL
Russia is doing few massive attacks except in key areas from what I see (key terrain), just a constant push mostly that’s moving and eating like an ameba (where most of the 176 square miles of gained territory per month comes from). As Russia pushes, Ukraine is forced to reallocate troops and other resources, and that creates new weak spots (they can’t effectively cover 800 miles of frontage). Because this is all about smaller units and no huge formations, you don’t have the IMINT and SIGINT giving you a heads up of force concentrations about to conduct major operation.
Why do I believe this?
The Russians approached this entirely different than in the South or Center.
A good diversion isn't a feint. A feint is tricking an enemy, but a diversion FORCES the enemy to react because if they do not, they stand to lose something even more precious, in this case Kiev.
The Russian blitz for Kiev was intended to force Ukraine to pull troops from the South and Center, Russia's Main Effort, and thereby making that an easier task.
However, in the court of public opinion, this was sold as some huge Ukrainian victory, and like our bogus casualty reports that say nothing about Ukraine, we to this day plaster this all over a map to show some sort of success, when in reality Russia controls nearly everything they wanted.
This allows us to make pretty maps that look like we're doing OK: https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/36a7f6a6f5a9448496de641cf64bd375
Here's a dose of reality:
Russia has blocked Ukraine from entering NATO, the political objective.
Russia has seized near all the ethnic Eastern territories, 20% of what once was Ukraine, the military objective.
It is Russia that is seizing an additional 176 square miles per month on average.
Ukraine had EU membership in reach before the war, but no one in the EU wants this crippled basket case at this point. That has slipped away.
Ukraine's already bad birth rate went to abysmal, one of the worst on the planet and unsustainable for just generation (35 years).
Ukraine has seen their GDP implode by 30%. Ukraine would not even be able to pay for their public servants and services without Western aid at this point.
Ukraine's currency has devalued.
Ukraine's debt has exploded.
Ukraine has had millions leave the country, many never to return.
Ukraine's infrastructure is heavily damaged.
Ukraine's government went from being a US and to a lesser degree EU puppet regime 2014 - 2021 to being an outright dictatorship in 2022: canceled elections, banned political opposition, suspicious deaths of political opponents, jailing journalists and beating them, closing radio, print and TV media that say anything the regime don't like, building fences on their border NOT to keep people out but rather prevent people from leaving!
Do you realize, (((EVERY))) prediction we made about Russia's economy and how they would collapse has not come true but has occurred with Ukraine and we simply don't talk about it!
This war in Ukraine is an abject failure.
The only consolation I have, is that possibly this war was caused intentionally to weaken Russia's position on the world stage.
Maybe Ukraine is not really our center of gravity. This war has the Ukrainians doing all the bleeding, and the Euro's flipping 1/2 the bill, the Euros dealing with the bulk of the refugees and being responsible for the post war clean up. All this while we make mineral deals in Ukraine, push Russia out of Western/Central Europe what gas and oil are concerned, sell weapons, and gobble up more of what once was under Russia's control in the Middle East, North Africa and South America. What we did October 2021 was so over the top ridiculous, and those in power on our side cannot be that naive/stupid, that war was almost a guaranteed outcome.
Disregard what the outcome in Ukraine is. See it as a "shaping operation" that sets the stage for success elsewhere.