>>46972
There is fighting outside of Mariupol as well. The Ukrainians managed to push the Russians back from Mykolaiv but DPR and LPR forces are also slowly but surely gaining ground in the Donbas. Russian and LPR forces also managed to take more ground around Sievierodonetesk, there is a large Ukrainian force there that they are working on isolating.

The 900,000 paramilitaries are not untrained, many are former soldiers and the rest are militia(so poorly trained granted) but yes any new forces will be untrained.

>>46973
Maybe, some of the early actions seemed to indicate that they hoped to win the war with a relativity fast and bloodless coup but then that does not mean they fully expected that, after all if there is even a small chance of winning such a victory then it makes sense to take it.

While yes it makes sense to win a war as fast as possible in some ways that can cause issues of it's own. The Russians have no shortage of artillery and could probably use that to make things progress allot faster but that would also take a huge toll on the civilian population. Even ignoring that rushing could cause them severe losses in battle and it could also cause them to overextend and get cut off. I don't think they have the forces to spare for large rapid offensives, not until they take Mariupol at least and then we will see if that changes things.