It is, and has been from the beginning. Most people thought it would be a walk in the park for the 'great' Russian army, especially the Russians. The only real holdouts to this opinion were the Ukrainians. And as it turns out they were bang on the money on this one.

First of all I would ask what is this win scenario you envision?

Is it: 1)Russia takes over all of Ukraine and installs a puppet government, subservient to the Kremlin? That option is long gone.

2) Russia expends thousands of tanks and young men to capture some of East Ukraine? They would face an insurgency and ongoing battles for control, not like ISIS in Afghanistan, more like the trench warfare from WWI or urban fighting from WWII.

There is no win scenario for Russia that will account for the loss of: 1. soldiers

2. Military equipment (destroyed/captured/spent)

3. The mythos of the Russian Armed forces being destroyed

4. Russia's Economy

5. The young talent fleeing the country (brain drain)

All of these losses will take decades to recover from and the Russian people will suffer long and hard, they already had a falling population, this will accelerate the problem.