Russia's long persecuted ethnic minorities — Buryats, Chechens and Yakuts — have seized on the war in Ukraine to make a case for the independence of their own regions. They say the conflict has laid bare Russia's violent and imperial mentality, not just in Eastern Europe, but within its own borders.
Frankly I don’t think this is a realistic option that will lead to anything but more long drawn out protracted warfare
You could have said that about the collapse of all colonial empires, and it ended up being true for some of them - the Portuguese colonial war lasted 13 years in some places - but doesn’t make it unrealistic.