lol, who had 10 millions or so hostile population? Not all of the donbas are pro-Russia, certainly not the one that recently captured in 2022. On the other hand, didn't Vietnamese and Taliban both generate enough "Hostile" population supported by the US and NATO to have achieve the same result.
The problem is, you are thinking about the "end" of this war, this counter offensive is NOT going to end this war, this at best is going to be put either Ukrainian or Russia in a better position in the table, problem is, it won't end even if Ukraine or Russia achieve victory in this counter offensive. The war is going to drag on, maybe in a lower intensity. Simply because of the fact that this war is ONLY going to end once Russia withdraw from Ukraine. Because as long as they present in Ukraine, there are always going to be fighting, even if the Ukrainian is without western support, which I highly doubt, because do you think the West would let Ukraine go with all these weapons deliver to them just to have them lose the war and all went to Russia or even China sphere of influence? Ukrainian would still able to resort to insurgency.
The West is going to prop this up especially if this does not involve NATO casualty. Because they know very well it's either bleed Ukrainian blood by giving them weapon or bleed European blood by fighting the Russian themselves.
So, no, Time is NOT on Russian side, and it's naive to think so, because Russian already gave their prime in this conflict, I mean what can the Russia do now when they can't with their best troop and best equipment at the beginning of the war? And with the subsequent 300k add on for the last offensive? That's a lot of combat power ALREADY wasted and it is going to take the Russian decade to replace all those, that is if they are doable to begin with.