the russian operative was to move the war west, so that it was fought in ukraine instead of in russia. this is ukraine's longstanding purpose to moscow, after all, as a buffer state, even if it would rather that buffer state be poland than ukraine.
america's purpose in digging in has been to bleed russian resources, take out some ships, etc. the hope is that it can reduce russia's strategic capabilities. this has clearly backfired, as america is having difficulty producing missiles and munitions, and the cost of the war has become a major political issue that is negatively impacting the popularity of the current administration.
russia has since annexed four provinces in southeast ukraine that were absorbed into russia in the distant past and were appended to ukraine by khrushev during the soviet period. this was supposed to russify ukraine, which was a fine enough idea when the soviet union existed, but has resulted in a region that russia considers a part of russia outside of russia, after the collapse of the union. these areas are also russian-speaking.
by annexing the regions to russia, putin can claim he is expelling ukrainian invaders from russian territory, which is an awkward claim but has some convoluted logic to it.
while it seems on it's face that the russians are halted due to incompetence, given these competing objectives, it is possible that they were trying to create a trench and dig in, a la world war one, or at the very least were slowing down the process on purpose. this is after all what the russians want - to fight the war in ukraine, if the americans insist on fighting it. winning would actually be counter-productive, then, as the americans would just start another war somewhere else. so long as this trench across ukraine exists a distance from russia, the russians basically get what they want.
however.
the russians have recently been moving west:
i picked that graphic for a reason. look at it carefully.
there is a jagged grey line in the middle of the picture. that line is the official border of the russian federation.
what happens when russia gets to that line? does it stop?
will it get there before the reinauguration of donald trump in january? if it does, this slow trudge west could produce the conditions for a truce.
is that what the russians wanted all along?
is that why this is taking so long?