Majority of Russians expect Ukraine war to end in 2026, state survey finds

A majority of Russians anticipate the end of the Ukrainian conflict in 2026, according to a state-owned research center. As a result, Russian forces advance on the battlefield and work gets more aggressive to reach a ceasefire agreement between Kiev and Moscow.

Russians are viewing 2026 with “growing optimism,” according to VTsIOM, Russia’s top public opinion research center, which released a statement on Wednesday.

Recommended Stories

list of 4 itemsend of list

In other words, Russians are more likely to accept (or believe) hope as the outlook for the upcoming year traditionally appears much more optimistic. Future improvements are expected this year, but they still proceed cautiously, the organization said in a review of the survey findings, which were made public online.

According to VTsIOM deputy head Mikhail Mamonov, 70 percent of the 1,600 people surveyed thought that 2026 would be a more “successful” year for Russia than this year, with 55 percent of those predicting a better year and the potential resolution of what Russia calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine.

Mamonov stated at the presentation that the main reason for optimism is the possibility of the special military operation being completed and the achievement of the stated goals in line with the president’s stated national interests.

Mamonov cited the Russian military’s ongoing offensive in Ukraine, Washington’s unwillingness to finance the Ukrainian conflict, and the EU’s inability to fully replace the US role in Ukraine as key factors in the development of a resolution.

Priorities will be placed first, according to Mamonov, including the reintegration of Russian military veterans into society and the reconstruction of Ukrainian regions under Russian control as well as the border regions.

According to independent pollster Levada, roughly two-thirds of Russians support peace talks, which is the highest number since the start of the war in 2022, despite the strict state-imposed media restrictions on the media, expressions of public dissent, and the prosecution of those who criticize Moscow’s war against its neighbor.

In a statement released on Wednesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy declared that he would withdraw troops from Ukraine’s eastern industrial heartland as part of a strategy to put an end to the conflict if Moscow agreed by reversing its forces and allowing the region to become a demilitarized zone under international surveillance.

Zelenskyy also mentioned that a similar arrangement might be possible for the area around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which is currently under Russian control, in comments to reporters about an overarching 20-point plan that negotiators from Ukraine and the US had hammered out in Florida in recent days.

Russia has repeatedly urged Kyiv to give up the land it still holds in the Donbass industrial area before discussions on putting an end to the fighting. It has given no indication that it will do so.

The two Donbass regions, which are largely made up of Luhansk and Donetsk, are now largely under Russian control.

Zelenskyy added that the most difficult part of the plan was to determine where the Donbass will eventually be controlled, and that setting up a demilitarized economic zone in the area would require laborious discussions regarding where international forces would be stationed and how far troops would be needed to retreat.