It is clear to me from your opinion that Russia is playing the humanitarian crisis card in what appears to be the most extreme solutions it has, but this is also surprising given the size of the military arsenal it possesses compared to Ukraine. Even on a strategic level, the Russian army has experience in fighting wars, whether on its territory or abroad. Is it really possible that it fails to invade a country that does not have the same experience or tools?
Russian military power is a mirage. Their last major victory was against nazi Germany (thus the bizarre fixation on nazis even to this day) 80 years ago but even that comes with some caveats, such as lend-lease, second front, and the amount of cannon fodder Stalin used up.
Since then they failed in Afghanistan, barely defeated Chechnia (a nation of ~1.5 million) by bombing it into rubble, and incited some smaller conflicts (Moldova, Georgia, Ukraine pre 2022). They haven't been able to create any substantially new weapons and can barely maintain old soviet equipment. Corruption in all levels of Russian government, including military, is legendary.
Here is an interesting analysis on how their claims differ from reality:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHhgVrKJJoAtl;dr: claimed to have 10+ thousand tanks, may have actually had 3000 potentially usable ones before the start of the war.