At which point do they force Russia to really start pounding Ukraine like we did to Iraq, 42 continuous days of bombing with the intention of destroying their nation.
Russia doesn't want to do that for a large number of important reasons. None of which existed for US when it bombed Iraq. Russians either already or will have to live there and rebuild it. There are historical buildings and infrastructures which Russia doesn't want to have to start from scratch on. Then, there's the human factor, of civilians which will be living there, and the fact that Russian troops will have to be stationed there, and terrorism, and the unstated but very important need for this infrastructure in the event (being planned as a contingency) that Russia will have to invade eastern NATO or even further, and it will need multiple routes in working order, so as to bring 2 million+ Russian and Belarusian troops and 1-3 million Chinese and DPRK troops, to settle this once and for all, including occupying Poland, Germany, Romania, the three Baltic nations, Finland (now NATO), Czechia, and perhaps even France and Italy. Ukraine is the path and that path must be maintained.
As opposed to, what I would argue, was Putin hoping to roll in with a show of force, a quick "surrender" and minimal casualties.
Putin was hoping first that a neutral Ukraine would continue, but the US staged its coup d'etat, and then for 6 more years Obama and Trump built up Ukraine militarily, even then Putin wanted the Minsk Agreements, but "haters gonna hate", so he resorted to what you're describing, and even that was set to work in March of 2022 but again, the US and UK basically forced Ukraine to go to war against Russia, as they are now, and as they will continue to do, because our leaders really do want World War 3. Russia realizes this and increasingly so does China. When Putin goes to Beijing soon, it's about war plans and severing China from the US totally. Kim Jong-Un is already on board, just returning from Russia. The full national nuclear war drill takes place tomorrow in all Russian time zones. They can shelter, care, and feed the whole popuation. They can survive nuclear war with the United States. We will perish.
