Advertisement posters for military conscription in Moscow, 20 August. Photo: EPA-EFE/YURI KOCHETKOV
An increasing number of Russians would welcome making concessions and entering into peace talks with Ukraine, according to a random sample of 800 Russians who agreed to take part in a telephone survey carried out earlier this month.
The survey, which was conducted by Russian independent research project Chronicles, and Extreme Scan, a non-profit international collaboration of independent researchers, also found that fewer Russians were willing to fight in the war with Ukraine.
According to the as yet unpublished results, which have been shown to Novaya Gazeta Europe, 63% of Russians would favour a peace treaty being concluded between Russia and Ukraine to include concessions made by both sides, within the next year.
Some 49% of respondents said they would support peace talks with Ukraine and the withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine, even if that meant Moscow failing to achieve the goals of the “special military operation”, initially described by Vladimir Putin as the “denazification and demilitarisation” of Ukraine. This is the highest recorded figure since the start of the war, according to Chronicles.
Another 33% of respondents indicated that they would not support peace talks or a Russian withdrawal from Ukraine, however.
The number of those willing to sign a contract with the Russian Defence Ministry to fight in Ukraine has fallen from 42% to 32% since February 2023, according to the survey. The number of respondents who explicitly said they were unwilling to participate in the war increased from 21% to 30% over the same period.
