

Russia could not even prevent Assad from falling to some militia with some training from Turkey, while Iran was also helping. What do you believe is going to happen, if they would try to fight another professional military? They are not even winning in Ukraine, which gets some support from Europe, while Russia has a full on war economy.
A good rule of thumb is just to go by geography. The closer something is to the place you live in the more important it is to you. Both in direct impact and being actionable. You will not do any good, when you are depressed. That is what they want to do.
If something is really important to your life, then you are going to hear of it pretty quickly, even if you do not activly follow the news. So if you are depressed from local news, then just do not read, watch or listen to anything activly.