Russia's military weakness exposed in Ukraine

 ISW:

The Kremlin is projecting the narrative of a powerful Russia and a powerful Russian President Vladimir Putin to conceal the real weaknesses and limitations of Russia's capabilities and distract from Russia's battlefield failures. Putin has long held that the perception of weakness can be lethal in a system built on the premise of strength — a principle that applies to the stability of his regime as well as to Russia's position in the world. The world should not take the Kremlin's displays at face value, but should look past them to the realities of Russia and this war.

The Kremlin is trying to portray the 80th Anniversary Victory Day parade in Moscow on May 9 as a diplomatic success to present Russia as a superpower and Putin as a respected world leader. The Kremlin boasted that senior leaders and representatives of over 20 foreign countries are attending the parade.[1] The Kremlin media particularly celebrated the attendance of People's Republic of China (PRC) President Xi Jinping, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic.[2] Kremlin media framed Fico's and Vucic's parade attendance as an act of Slovak and Serbian resistance against the European Union's (EU) "orders" and "threats."[3] Some Kremlin outlets presented Xi's, Vuvic's, and Fico's attendance as direct support for Putin.[4]

The parade was hardly a diplomatic success, however, but was instead an attempt to conceal Russia's international isolation, military failures, and domestic problems. The Kremlin only convinced Russia’s known allies to attend the parade, while most world leaders refrained from traveling to Moscow. The Kremlin's emphasis on Xi's attendance shows that Russia remains dependent on its relationship with the PRC and that Putin needs great powers to validate his stature as well as to support his war effort. Three years into its war against Ukraine, the Kremlin is unable to protect a parade in Russia’s capital from a risk of drone strikes launched from Ukraine — a country over a thousand miles away from Moscow that Russia thought it could conquer in a matter of days in 2022.[5]
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Putin and the Russian military thought they could take Ukraine in a matter of days, if not weeks.  In fact, they failed in that objective and only took some provinces of Ukraine.  What this suggests is that the current Russian military would lose dramatically if it attempted to attack NATO forces with conventional weapons.