Russia's strategic error at the outset was that they tried to minimize damage to infrastructure.
“Russia’s strategic error at the outset was that they tried to minimize damage to infrastructure.”
Slavic thinking in general (Ukraine included) isn’t terribly sophisticated. For the most part in WW2 if they saw a German tank or German strong point they went straight at it regardless of the cost in blood.
Ukraine had the benefit of several years of NATO training and their response to Russian tanks was to avoid armor vs. armor battles and instead concentrated on attacking the soft target of Russian logistics.
Thus Ukraine captured a boatload of Russian vehicles that ran out of fuel or ammunition. This was far less costly in Ukrainian lives than attacking those targets head on.
Likewise at the outset of the war the Russians looked for the obvious targets and often passed up opportunities to destroy more important and much more vulnerable Ukrainian targets.
They still have yet to pivot to a newer mindset and this is costing them as they are unable to defeat Ukraine.
Their solution is to draft older men and send those older men into battle. The older men are far less likely to do brave things and far more likely to kill the officers ordering them to go commit suicide on the battlefield.
It really is as if the Soviet Union never died.
Perhaps sometime soon it will. But as you point out and I will agree, this war is not Ukraine’s to win it is Russia’s to lose.