They do also commonly report on such slaughters of Ukrainians. One either trusts it all or trusts it nothing. I'm more erring on the side of nothing, unless there are signs of withdrawal, evidence of battlegrounds etc.
It is what it is, individual battles are taking place over Bakhmut and such battles can realistically easily cause dozens of losses in each round of firing to each side. The most important metric of success or non success is how the battle will play out, it seems here that it will be the Stalingrad of this war as both sides committed massive forces in the area. But the real question is, who will be the one that overcommitted here and lost, and who will be the equivalent of the Soviets?
Probably in some weeks we will know. Especially if the ground freezes over making things less favorable towards stalemate.
You don't win wars by ruthlessness but by skill. You can oppress the helpless with ruthlessness but it doesn't win real wars. Iraq was a Guangdong KMT level enemy, corrupt to the bone so you can easily exploit them on the intelligence level, no realistic fighting military to speak of due to factionalized politics.
When Soviets crushed the Germans they didn't need much ruthlessness against German civilian. Only encircling the battle formation of Germans. Same when China liberated North Korea from America or when the PLA easily routed the KMT, there was no need to wantonly slay civilians or PoWs.
The biggest factor is that Russia lacks skill to outmaneuver the enemy comprehensively. This can most likely be pinned on an non innovative army leadership, more motivated by the arms industry and their own interests than by professional national security concerns. That type of weakness is common to states organized similarly to Russia. But this is also something Russia itself likely has come to understand and plan around, so it is not playing ambitiously, knowing the conflict can economy wise be sustained for years and Russia lacks the skill to end it with swift planning anyways.
Besides that, Russia itself also likely plans that NATO can get involved at any point and as such it seeks to avoid overextending and causing encirclements in the worst case should it happen.
