The number of Russians who favour peace talks with Ukraine has risen to 58% in the last six months — the highest number since surveys on the issue began — according to data published by independent pollsters at the Levada Centre on Thursday.
Some 37% of respondents said they believed Russia should continue the war in Ukraine, with men, people aged 55 and over, and wealthier Russians more likely to support Russian military action, Levada wrote, adding that the groups most in favour of peace talks were women, people aged 18–24, and those “struggling to put food on the table”.
Levada also noted that Russians who relied on YouTube channels as a source of information were more likely to be in favour of ending the war than respondents who watched state TV.
More than half of the Russians surveyed (58%) believe the war in Ukraine could lead to an armed conflict between Russia and NATO, Levada wrote, and a third believed using nuclear weapons in Ukraine could be justified, while 52% said they didn’t think it could.
The Levada Centre carried out the survey between 20-27 June, interviewing a representative cross-section of 1,627 adult Russians in some 137 urban and rural settlements across the country.
Ukraine and Russia have put forward competing peace plans in the past month, with Kyiv using a peace summit in Switzerland to which Russia was not invited to advance its proposals, while Vladimir Putin offered his own “prerequisites” for peace that were immediately dismissed as a “sham” by Kyiv.