And OP, I haven't been following the situation too closely as of late but I was kind of wondering the same thing as well. I would have thought that if the Russian resolve to conquer Ukraine was great enough, they would have employed blitzkreig tactics instead of whatever it is they're doing. They've got nuclear capability, FFS, so I don't think I'd be faulted for assuming that any country would rather surrender and not fight than risk something truly terrifying and devastating happening.
I'd be very interested to hear others' opinions on this, too.
I don't think the problem is russian war tactics, the russian army didn't just anticipate the resistance response by the Ukrainians. The fact is that the united states as well as other ukrainian allies rendered so much support by providing more than enough defensive artilleries, as well as aids admist the war really gave the ukrainian army a fighting chance.
Its true that Russia has one of the most equiped nuclear arsenal, but who are we kidding?. They can't deploy such weapons on any country unless they are ready to fight the rest of the world.