I don’t see any changes really. It was clear from the start of the war that Russia will integrate the occupied territory into Russia at some point. My guess is that Russia underestimated the Ukrainians a little and thought that the occupied territory would be bigger, so it is turning to a strategy of long term attrition. I thought they would have taken the whole coast by next summer, but expect this operation to last decades.
The nuclear threats are media fodder.