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Today, there is interesting news from the Russian Federation.
Here, the Russian political leadership is claiming confidently that Russia will continue the war until it achieves all the goals it has set out at the start of the war. However, the latest poll results shocked them, because as it turns out, the Russian population has had enough of the so-called special military operation and wants the war to end now.
Recently, an internal survey prepared for regional Russian administrations ahead of the 2026 elections shows 83% of Russians feel fatigued from the war, and 56% want it to end right away, a sharp rise from the previous year. Support for continuing hostilities has fallen to around 23 percent, even as the Kremlin insists publicly that national unity remains strong.
The gap between state messaging and private sentiment has never been wider, as Putin still expects his forces to capture all of the Donetsk region and has set deadlines by February 2026, while his foreign-policy aides continue repeating maximalist demands. Foreign Minister Lavrov claims demilitarization and denazification remain non-negotiable, while spokesperson Peskov says Russia wants the war to end, but only once its original objectives are achieved. The new data is a shock, not because Russians suddenly oppose the war, but because the scale of fatigue is impossible to hide even from those in power.
The direct reasons named for this are that the Russians have endured hundreds of thousands of casualties, rising inflation, collapsing wages, and a permanent war economy that diverts nearly all resources toward the military.
New taxes are imposed almost monthly to fill budget gaps, with the last one raising Russia’s value-added tax from 20% to 22% next year. Ukrainian deep strikes break through Russian air defenses every night, hitting refineries, power plants, ports, and ammunition depots, eroding the public confidence further.
Many citizens now feel that the Kremlin has imported the war back into Russia itself, despite continual assurances that everything is under control. For the first time since the invasion, Ukrainians are hitting strategic sites far behind the front line, and Russians notice.
The number of people who say their living standards have deteriorated is the highest since 2022. In October 2025, for every Russian who reported even a slight improvement in their finances, three said their situation had worsened.
Shockingly, the sentiment is changing even within the military, as communications among dozens of senior Russian officers reveal what many suspected: a growing belief that the war has reached a political and strategic deadlock, maintained only by Putin’s personal stubbornness. This does not signal imminent collapse, nor does it mean generals are preparing to challenge his power. Many are indifferent, and if the war ends, they will adapt. If it continues, they will send more men forward while falsifying reports and exaggerating successes, but beneath that cynicism lies a recognition that the conflict cannot be won in the form Putin demands. Some high-ranking officers quietly admit they would prefer the war to stop, simply to avoid wasting more soldiers’ lives, yet none will directly challenge a system that rewards their obedience and punishes honesty.
Several prominent Russian military analysts have also begun to push for the peace settlement because they understood that Russia cannot achieve the objectives it set at the start of the invasion, as the army has lost too many men to sustain the current pace for the several more years needed to conquer the remaining territories. Despite recent claims of rapid advances, progress is fast only compared to the crawling pace of the last 3 and a half years.
An army that once marched with new tanks and modern infantry fighting vehicles now advances with motorcycles, improvised Frankenstein trucks, civilian cars stripped of doors, and small infantry squads used as expendables.
As Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte put it, Putin is running out of money, ideas, and soldiers, and hundreds of thousands of Russians are dying for his reckless aggression.
Overall, a widening rift separates Russian society from its leadership, and the military is no longer immune to this split. After nearly four years of war, Russian forces lose over a thousand men a day, and replacing them has become increasingly complex. Putin accepts this attritional pace because he views time as his ally, but even his generals concede that Russia’s human reservoir is not infinite.
The latest poll shows the consequences clearly: those wanting to continue the war are in the minority, compared to those tired of it and those wanting an immediate truce; an alarming trend for Putin, who is still determined to achieve his goals in Ukraine.
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