The Russians are able to conquer Ukraine. The catch is that there may be no one left and all the buildings would be reduced to rubble in that scenario. The Romans did it too Carthage. Kyiv is a special city and I would say that the Russians wouldn't want to destroy the city completely.
If they can just get Zelensky to flee to exile that might break their will to fight.
Kyiv existed as a cosmopolitan center of commerce 1000 years before Moscow was even a village. Putin is an authoritarian KGB thug, a Soviet era reject, with delusions of “Tsarhood” dancing in his head. He is so caught up in Russian history - the past - that he ignores the ancient history of Ukraine.
Despite all the East European political intrigue and chicanery of the Western powers, conducted over the last 3 decades, The Ukrainian people are not going to sit back and let Putin just “take” their country.
The “Putinistas” here will make their arguments against corruption, western interference, neocon war mongering, etc. However valid those arguments, they change not the fact that Vladimir Putin invaded a sovereign nation, based on a mindset that perceives only historic fears, and is hell-bent on a return to pre-1914 “Greater Russia.”