I'm not so sure that they are looking for wholesale slaughter. Destruction of economic and military targets however? Seems like that's what they are aiming for at the moment.

Yes, demilitarization to create a buffer between Russia and the bulk of NATO. This however requires maintaining civilian infrastructure and a functionning seat of power to preserve this buffer zone.

It doesn't scream "occupation" either. From what little credible info we have, there hasn't been any occupation of cities outside of the "breakaway" Eastern regions.

Exactly, Russia doesn't seem to be forceful. Puts in doubt the western propaganda about the conflict.

I'd disagree. Russia's got a dying demographic. The worst possible thing to happen to Russia would be to become bogged down in another Russian-Afghanistan style occupation. Putin is too smart for that.

That however doesn't require destruction, merely installing a puppet Government, not unlike what the US did in 2014.

If your objective was to bleed the Russians into submission, arming everyone with a trigger finger is a good way to start. Obviously it has it's drawbacks in that someone will need to stabilize Ukraine after the war ends. Whoever it'll be will have their work cut out for them.

Seems counterintuitive. Arming convicts seems like it would just result in a crime spike and probably friendly fire. Heck, those convicts could even try to defect to Russia in order to maybe gain amnesty.

Frankly, even arming normal citizens seems like a recipe to escalate conflict and create more casualties than anything that would halt the Russian advance.