We are in the seventh week of the war now and Vlad might not be able to start his big drive in the east for a month, especially if the Ukrainians blow up Rail bridges inside Russia. So it will be 3 months or close to it that the Ukrainians have had to build an army and massive reserve, organize resistance and arm it near everywhere and receive tons of new advanced weapons from more than just NATO. They have nearly destroyed much of Vlad`s army there now and wounded the rest, grinding it down daily with increasing numbers of trained troops. By the time Vlad shows up in the east, he might be counter attacked and driven back before he can line up his ducks and they wait for him from new positions that they withdraw from when Vlad begins his assaults along IED lined roads encountering ambush after ambush while being destroyed on the roads by artillery and mortars. They will pay for every mile of their advance with blood, the Ukrainians falling back as required while pounding them all the time. This time they will be ready and will have the weapons to do the job, they will have had near 3 months of all out effort and organization and you can see that organization in action in news reports and videos.
The Ukrainians made major investments in education for decades, while the Russians cut it in favor of the military (sound familiar), you are seeing the results in a new generation of leaders and citizens. They are much different than the Russian now, more so than in the past, educating the populace and leveraging the smarts of the people with training leads to better results and societies, long term investments are more of a sure thing. This has also lead to a cultural divide with Russians and a more western out look and looking people.
Ukraine would be the largest country in Europe with an educated population 2/3 the size of Germany and full of natural resources, great rivers and even black sea ports. They have natural gas, mostly in the east and if developed further might help out Europe a lot for a few critical years. In 5 years they won't fear Russia and could be in bilateral defense agreement with neighbors like Turkey, who get 90% of their grain from Ukraine and the Islamic world gets most of it. Turkey also wants canal traffic and a dynamic Ukraine shipping grain out and receiving Asian containers for Europe might give the Turks the traffic they seek for the canal, financing too. Russia has diminished in importance, militarily and economically and will be for a long time to come. The Turkish canal is a pet project of the local strongman.