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I haven't deep-dived on the progress of this invasion. Honest question here, can someone explain to me: if Russia wants to get Ukraine back, why no all-out assault? With more than 3x the population and a more powerful military, seems like they could've been raising the Russian flag all over Kyiv long before now.

They don't want Western Ukraine, the people are extremely Anti-Russia in that part of the country. I think the ultimate goal is to take Odesa and turn Ukraine into a landlocked country.

Initially Russia didn't anticipate Ukraine fighting back, they miscalculated big time and took a haymaker to the face. They never had the forces in place to conquer a country of 40 million people. Ever since they reset, they have have adapted their tactics and are bleeding Ukraine out in the East. Ukraine is running out of manpower and is going to have to mobilize the only group left, which is the youngest group of men. These guys know how things are going and that people don't return from the front, and if they do, they're missing limbs. Ukraine is having a huge issue conscripting people for the war, it takes a ton of manpower just to round up a couple dozen guys, it's not sustainable. Even if they are able to round these guys up, it won't be enough, and they're untrained.

As far as why it's going slow, there has been a war going on in the east since 2014, there are trenches upon trenches, minefields, etc. The line is starting to collapse and things will move quicker once that happens. Ukrainians are tough people, a hell of a lot tougher than Western Europeans and Americans (these days), they've put up a hell of a fight. Russia could end up mobilizing a ton of men and running roughshod over Ukraine but they don't want to do that, it probably wouldn't be a popular decision in Moscow, St. Petersburg, etc. Things are trending their direction so there is no need to do that, Ukraine is running out of men and the West will lose interest.