>>514819647
Some reasons for this have been said by the Russian government. One was that they want to make it clear to the average Ukrainian civy that the fight is with Kiev and its willingness to act as a proxy. This is also why they take meat prisoner, take extra effort for body exchanges, offer transport west to civilians in captured areas, evac orphans or lost children, distribute humanitarian aid, broadcast and leaflet defection instructions, and publicize their Christmas truce and peace offers. Its the correct way to do the US's "hearts and minds". Be overly cautious about creating too much damage, and to constantly reinforce that the fight is with Kiev.
Another reason is that they have stated that they don't wish to grow the war economy to the point that it passes 7% (iirc) of government spending. This is partly about cost, but also about allocation of labour (i.e. not being WWII Germany and making potential workers soldiers) and preventing the economy from becoming dependant on the MIC
I suspect there are two additional reasons they aren't saying but directly related to each other and relate in order to the prior points: escalation and reserves.
By escalation I mean that despite it all they still don't wish to overly agitate the West. The reasons for this are to avoid justification for military build up or even war, to have a diplomatic end still be possible, and essentially to not sour the opinion of future generations in the West. At the end of the day peace without hostile relations is the path of least resistance and they want that to be possible. "Hearts and Minds" on a broader scale of geography and time.
By reserves I mean they don't want to fully commit every available military asset to the conflict as they want to maintain and even grow reserve assets. The reason for this relates to the economy but also to the possibility of a broader and or future conflict. If everything is committed now it is harder to respond to future developments. SMO.
