No they were not... I was reading the news.. Russian army stayed outside of kiev without storming it for 2 weeks and then the peace deal happened which under the orders of Washington and Boris Johnson was thrown away by Zelensky. The deal had a clause that Russia would withdraw from Kiev and summy area which they did and next you know Bucha massacre happened (because of Nazi unit of Ukraine ofc). Western propaganda machine set the stage for a prolong proxy war then only. Russian army had a better chance of threatening Kiev if they would have pushed right through.