[heneryville]

This is correct. Turning a catastrophic loss into something that maybe kinda looks like a victory has been a propaganda coup for Russia. That's done in this case by inflicting disproportional pain on Ukraine. But remember, most often in war both sides lose. Russia does not win if Ukraine suffers. Russia wins if it achieves it's goals, which it has not and will not.

Russia has lost, but is substituting making another suffer as a victory, even when that in no way is helpful to Russia or it's people. Ukraine has always lost in the sense that this war was never going to be anything but a net-negative for them, and has won in the sense that they've retained most of their goals (remaining a sovereign state).