Another remarkable development is the situation around Bakhmut. The Russian PMC Wagner has turned into a penal army. It was originally a small, special forces force. The Pentagon has claimed that it is composed of 50,000 men (40,000 convicts and 10,000 contractors).
This light infantry penal army is occupying the attention of a dozen Ukrainian brigades. I think this gives an indication on how ill-prepared NATO/Ukraine and Russia have been for large scale warfare. The forces on both sides are so exhausted that the 'best' of the Ukrainians is struggling against Russian convicts with 3-weeks of training. At the same time, most of the Russian regular army is in Belarus/Russia scrambling to train 400,000 men and Russia has been running an economy of force operation since burning out in July. They have lost more ground than they gained since the summer.