Think about it, at some point they would have to go 'overt' with the fighting to clean up strongholds and the corners they had forced DS/Kazahrians into, as some point DS would get desperate enough to try and do more than just attempt dirty-bombs and stuff that could be explained away as 'terrorism/crazy people/etc' and these are people that have access to nukes/chemical weapons as well as conventional military equipment and forces.
Doing it this way denied them the initiative and allows whitehats to dictate chain of events, but it certainly won't be pretty nor clean.....
I thought of this Q post when the Ukraine ordeal started last week. War is a dirty business and people would die along the way. That post makes sense now.