Manpower is a bigger issue for Ukraine compared to Russia. Ukraine is at least not doing human wave tactics and doing more to keep their guys alive, but Russia can last longer in that aspect as well.

I do agree that Putin can’t stop the war for anything less than complete victory, otherwise people will start asking questions about why this was necessary as you said.

Yeah, they are still able to trade with China (which happens to make everything anyway), and as opposed to most countries, Russia can still draw on a lot of the remaining Soviet infrastructure that was specifically built because Russia needed to be self sufficient during the cold war.

As long as Putin can manage to remain in power Russia can keep this war going.