Okay let me give you an analogy

Imagine a super elite boxer like prime Muhammad Ali vs an amateur high school athlete boxer

Ali should be able to knock out the high school boxer in round 1, right? Well, Ali defeated the highchool kid, but it took him 12 rounds, plus he wasnt able to knock the kid out. You can say that even though the highschool kid lost, Ali was still very incompetent, because what should've been an easy win for him dragged out to 12 rounds

Same thing for Russia and Ukraine here. Ukraine is losing in Bakhmut, yes, but the Russian army is supposed to be elite and superior, so it shouldn't take them "12 rounds" just to defeat Ukraine in Bakhmut

Even if Russia wins in Bakhmut, it's still incredibly devastating for them because they're losing so many soldiers just to squeeze out a small victory

Personally, i highly doubt WW3 will happen tho

There are so many wars happening right now. But the reason why nobody calls these "WW3" is because all of these are proxy wars by powerful nations

For example, the ongoing civil war in Yemen is actually a "war" between Iran and Saudi Arabia. One faction gets supplied by Saudi Arabia, and then the other faction gets supplied by Iran. So basically it's an "informal" or "proxy" war between Saudi Arabia and Iran

There are so many wars, conflicts, and insurgencies all across the Middle East and Africa. In almost all of them, you'll be able to trace at least two powerful countries supplying different groups and militias with various weapons.

Russia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey all participate in proxy wars across the Middle East. France is involved in Africa. The US almost everywhere

Superpowers rarely participate in traditional wars anymore, they just pit groups against each other to fight their wars for them. Putin just broke this trend by saying "fuck it, let's invade Ukraine", but i doubt other superpowers will follow suit