A major gulf in attitudes rose regarding Crimea, whose annexation was supported by 87 percent of Russians and opposed by 69 percent of Ukrainians. In Russia, both pro-Putin supporters and anti-Putin oppositionists like Alexei Navalny and Mikhail Khodorkovsky backed the annexation of Crimea. Seventy-nine percent of Russians linked that action to the revival of Russia as a great power and a return to Russia’s rightful dominance of the former Soviet Union. But 66 percent of Russians aged between 18 and 24 have a positive or very positive attitude toward Ukraine.
- At first glance, the Koneva group's most recent polls from Russia continue to show broad public support for the war.
- The day before the start of the war, Putin told the nation of WWII-era promises not to expand NATO eastward and said those promises had been broken five times.
- Koneva said researchers found that people in this group, the largest single segment of the population, have contradictory attitudes toward the war, consisting of narratives from both sides of the conflict.
- MOSCOW — Waiting for her friends on Moscow’s primly landscaped Boulevard Ring earlier this week, Svetlana Kozakova admitted that she’d had a sleepless night.
It could be their Soviet past, or the government propaganda that has been poured out for so many years, or just that there is too much fear and anxiety to actually allow the thought that the world is different from what they expect. Being far away from them helps because we try to prioritise keeping our relationship intact and caring for each other more than anything. Sometimes I can’t help but try to convince them, which obviously doesn’t work. For the record, they don’t support the war in general, they do want it to stop; however, they can justify it in their heads somehow. I deleted some of my messages because the police check social media chats on public transportation. In addition, the police recently searched the flat of a close friend of mine and then put her under house arrest for two months.
Russia Regains Upper Hand in Ukraine’s East as Kyiv’s Troops Struggle
“The Russians do not understand the real numbers of losses. … The media gives only authorized information, and the [country at large] 'absorbs’ losses,” she explained. Some 38% of respondents reported the war “has reduced their options or ruined their plans.” Among them, 14% of respondents reported a job loss, 36% a decrease in income and 56% reported spending more savings on food. “The feeling of the inevitability of war from the life of Russians, the feeling that the war is now with us, and we are with this life, caused the emergence of new meanings of war,” Zhuravlev said.
- For Ukrainians, the looming first anniversary of Russia’s invasion of their country is a historic milestone within an ongoing tragedy of unprovoked bloodshed, one which seems to be escalating again.
- At the same time, there are several potential arguments why the results from the early polls should be treated with great caution – or perhaps even discounted as meaningful.
- I asked him how he felt about the notion of justifiable hatred in the context of Ukraine.
- [Russian President Vladimir] Putin is just another man who has been in power too long.
- On one hand, it’s affected everyone – psychologically, economically, and in many other ways.
Polls have suggested that even though they are the least likely to support the invasion, many still back it. Finding out what young Russians really think about the war in Ukraine is not easy. For Russians this all brings back memories of what happened when President Putin annexed Crimea in 2014 and people queued for hours to get cash. The Kremlin has said Russia expected these latest sanctions and is ready for them, although it has not said whether businesses will be given extra help, as they were during the pandemic.
Meanwhile, Moscow has claimed its forces have taken control of the village of Tabaivka in Ukraine's northeastern Kharkiv region. War never leads to anything good and won’t this time either,” – says 18-year-old Tonya, wearing a bag with a hand-stitched "No war" sign. But even though justification of the Ukraine invasion can be found among Russians, there have been no demonstrations of support. It’s sunny, people are taking selfies on Red Square, while a long convoy of National Guard buses rolls by the Kremlin walls.
Russia-Ukraine: What do young Russians think about the war?
And that figure came from among those who agreed to participate at all; Miniailo suspected that the polls were not capturing a majority of the real antiwar sentiment, whatever its size. Where I am, people typically express their opinion at rallies, on social networks and among their inner circle. Usually, people will spread the word about protests secretly. But https://euronewstop.co.uk/what-is-china-saying-about-ukraine.html who wants to participate can easily find out about it. For example, in certain online communities, they’ll just post a single number (indicating a date) and everyone understands everything. But I don’t feel safe expressing my opinion, especially when I talk about it online or on the phone.
- Their town has been directly affected, so we are worried about them.
- In Pskov, near the Estonian and Latvian borders, the atmosphere is gloomy and everyone pretends the war has nothing to do with them, I am told.
- On the sixth day of the war in Ukraine, there have been more than 6,000 arrests at anti-war protests across Russia.
- There is more variety of opinion in the press, but it still largely sticks to the Kremlin line.
- I can do without access to the blocked social media platforms.
Military kit also needs boots on the ground to operate it – hence Sir Patrick’s call for a “Citizen Army” to boost the regular Armed Forces. Whether people would be flocking into recruitment offices is open to question. According to a 2022 YouGov poll, only one in five Britons would volunteer for service in the event of an invasion.
Ukraine will press Russia around Crimea
"Trended data can also be very informative about the direction of changes in public opinion even if the magnitude is exaggerated." They are still trying to track Russian public opinion on key topics, including the war in Ukraine, providing a rare window into how the Russian public views the war’s dramatic turns over the last 18 months. Not surprisingly, the major shift in opinion took place after 2014.
Since anyone with anti-war signs is arrested immediately, protesters casually stroll along until a large enough crowd gathers to shout their opposition to what's going on in Ukraine. After the forum had ended, I made a visit to Kyiv that coincided with a Russian missile-and-drone barrage that heralded the start of Putin’s extensive campaign on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure. People I met in the park wondered whether the statue had been the intended target, or whether the missile had been meant to hit a nearby government installation, and been downed by an air-defense missile? The hits on two symbols of Ukrainian sovereignty struck many as not coincidental.
Putin’s authoritarian and great power nationalistic regime fanned ethnic Russian nationalism, turning Russians against both the Ukraine state and Ukrainians as a people. Meanwhile, Putin’s repeated claim that Ukrainians and Russians are “one people” left no room for a Ukrainian identity other than that of “little Russians” in his Eurasian Union. Putin’s total control of the Russian media mobilized anti-Ukrainian hysteria among Russians in the decade leading up to the Kremlin’s 2014 aggression.
- After all, cultural attitudes of nationalism, patriotism, and support for strong leaders remain powerful forces in the world.
- But what kind of guarantees they would give independent Ukraine is not yet clear.
- Images on social media have shown long queues forming at ATMs and money exchanges around the country in recent days, with people worried their bank cards may stop working or that limits will be placed on the amount of cash they can withdraw.
- Volkov found that some 80% of respondents do support the military, but that group is by no means a monolith.
- If researchers exclude this group and also exclude the 20% of Russians who admit they oppose the war, that leaves about half of the country's population who researchers say support the war only at the "declarative level."
- My mother and I were very afraid for our lives, so the decision was made to leave.
It's quick to set up, and you can be confident that you're making a significant impact every month by supporting open, independent journalism. As you may have heard, The Moscow Times, an independent news source for over 30 years, has been unjustly branded as a "foreign agent" by the Russian government. This blatant attempt to silence our voice is a direct assault on the integrity of journalism and the values we hold dear. To put it simply, before launching an offensive, it’s worth thinking about who will fight in that offensive and how willingly, and to what extent an active conflict will prompt people to rally around Putin.
"You will not silence us," Meduza said in a defiant statement. "We need independent media to stop the war and then try and improve life in Russia at least to a degree." There is more variety of opinion in the press, but it still largely sticks to the Kremlin line. A stalwart of independent reporting for almost 29 years, the Novaya Gazeta newspaper, suspended operations on 28 March after receiving warnings from Russia's media watchdog Roskomnadzor. For months, Russians of all political stripes tuned out American warnings that their country could soon invade Ukraine, dismissing them as an outlandish concoction in the West’s disinformation war with the Kremlin. But this week, after several television appearances by Mr. Putin stunned and scared some longtime observers, that sense of casual disregard turned to a deep unease.