What Russia wanted to avoid is just happening before our eyes.
Putin bet on a clean and swift operation,the quick surrender of Ukraine and eastern Ukraine rallying on the Russian cause,towns falling one by one,welcoming Russian troops as liberators,a quick war that would limit the worldwide outrage and the world's response to the Russian invasion as well as the cost of the operation. (in terms of money and human lives)
The exact opposite happened. Ukraine is resisting,more united than ever,majority Russian speaking towns are the ones resisting the most to Russian assaults,Zelensky didn't surrender,Ukrainians living under Russian occupation haven't welcomed Russian as liberators,but are protesting against the occupier.
Meanwhile the operation is pretty much stalling,what Putin didn't want. Because the longer the operation lasts,the higher the cost is in Russian lives (already thousands killed,even more wounded....) and for Russian finances. (You've got to fund that 200K strong force.... and they can't forever).
The longer the conflict lasts,the more destructions Ukraine will suffer,higher the international outrage would be and higher the sanctions would be,higher the international support for Ukraine would be...
What has Putin achieved so far is ruining Russia's economy,turning Russia into a pariah state on par with North Korea,getting Europe and NATO even more united,making more and neutral countries wanting to join NATO (NATO expension which the Russians do not want) and last but not least showing the whole world the questionnable performance and quality of the Russian armed forces on the ground.
@LeGenD @RescueRanger