My comment was intended to highlight how fundamentally our views differ and not to start a discussion. I'm aware that my view is not completely neutral but I feel like your view is too different from mine to productively discuss them.

Yes, the Russian economy is doing better than expected but, obviously, a country at war with embargoes and large amounts of the workforce at the front will suffer. And yes, the current counter-offensive is not going as well as planned but the fact that Ukraine even started it and is making, albeit small, gains shows that they are at least on approximately even footing.