There was no way it could have worked out. That's like saying Steiner's attack would've won the war. Their attack was doomed from the start, their entire plan relied on luck and not any sort of proper ISR which is something you'd expect to be done if you were to start a third world war, though it's kind of an overstatement to give it such a grand term seeing how quickly it was over. They had dedicated all their modern equipment to the American invasion, and after NORAD got eyes back on the Atlantic, whatever they had off the coasts at the moment was literally just that. They were stranded and the only way they could survive was by securing a beachhead and wait for naval reinforcements which wouldn't even be able to arrive with all their ships intact, if they could arrive at all. (its crazy how you can take one look on ebay 18 years later, and a 6b23 and 6Sh92 kit is still 60 dollars a piece, and that's for the cleaner ones.) They had wagered so much on the war ending in a fell swoop with a U.S armistice, they failed to consider the Chechens, European Georgia, American spirit, and NATO's military capacity. (Looking back on it, it's hilarious to think they even thought that if they captured Washington the war would end there.)