"What this war has done is expose Russia for the paper tiger that it really is."

How has this been proven? I am not saying it is or isn't true, but how has this been demonstrated? Russia currently controls 20% of the Ukraine landmass, including the entire land bridge to Crimea. Russia controls all of the territory it had set out to annex.

Do you say this because Russia couldn't hold Kiev? Kiev was never the objective. By attacking Kiev quickly and then retreating slowly, Russia caused a certain amount of Ukraine forces to engage far away from the true objective in the south. Rather than being a "paper tiger", I would say this strategy was quite clever.