The Russian military action ( there are lots of ways to phrase it ) in Ukraine is not failing. So far at least. It was actually very quick to establish it’s initial objectives. Just getting things to where it wanted. It also quickly took out most targets distant from the ground forces. Those targets being things that would lend support to the Ukraine forces.
The overall pace of the operation has slowed due to the repeatedly said self imposed conditions of not killing civilians or destroying non military infrastructure. Ukraine has a large portion of ethnic Russians and not anti Russian people. Particularly in the Donbass.
Russian forces got to their positions around Kiev extremely fast. They also took open territory along the southeast areas quickly. They are sitting outside civilian areas on purpose. That looks like they are stalled. But they are intentionally paused.
They have reinforced the forces in the Donbass regions with material. And appear to be coming in from the northeast and south east behind the Ukraine forces that massed on the borders of the Donbass for what was to be an attack on those regions. That seems to be the real trigger of this mess.
It appears the forces round Kiev were to keep western Ukraine forces around that area and away from supporting Donbass forces.
The Russian forces may have encountered more resistance and losses than they wished. But not more than they can handle.
The endgame is to have a neutral Ukraine. Ukraine has a lot of Russian folks. Especially in the east. To most likely have an after action population of Ukrainians and Russian/Ukrainians be somewhat amenable to that. You do not want to kill massive amounts of them or destroy their country.
Russia is muting it’s force and tactics to hopefully have that outcome. Who knows if it will happen.