"Ukrainian support for the war effort collapses," reports Gallup. "Most now favor ending the war with Russia through negotiations, as support for fighting until victory has dropped sharply since the early days of the conflict." They've lost faith in the US too. news.gallup.com/poll/693203/...
It's unclear what territorial concessions most Ukrainians would accept to end Russia's invasion, but the mood does seem to contradict the signals from the Zelensky administration, which becomes quite tricky given that martial law has suspended elections and frozen democratic accountability.
A KIIS poll from May 2025 show that 52% will not accept territorial concessions even if it prolongs the war, while 38% are ready for concessions. www.kiis.com.ua?lang=eng&cat...
Trending toward acceptance, it appears. Zero territorial concessions is clearly a nonstarter from Russia’s perspective for any ceasefire, which I assume is clear to most Ukrainians.
As terrible as it would be, a war that ends in de facto territorial concessions or a cease-fire roughly along current lines, but Ukraine and its government otherwise intact, wouldn't exactly be a Russian victory in light of Putin's much more ambitious goals to completely subjugate them.
But I think it's been the case for a while Zelensky has hinted at being willing to accept a current-lines ceasefire, it's been the Russians who insist that's not good enough and demanding more.
The current battlelines are absolutely unacceptable to Moscow, given that Russian troops are advancing every day. The real question, it seems to me, is how many ordinary Ukrainians would agree to Putin's stated terms (all annexed oblasti and the various sovereignty concessions) to halt the war.
Putin annexed four Ukrainian oblasts: Under the Russian constitution they are now part of Russia, yet Putin does not fully control any of those regions. So *of course* the current frontline is completely unacceptable to Putin. The Ukrainian army is standing far inside Russia, as defined by Putin.
alas
Would want to see more polls confirming this, rather than just a one-off.
The best poll would be an election.
Well, who among us hasn’t lost their faith in the US 🤷🏻♂️
Many polls simplify complex issues, but sometimes they go too far. Taking this as example: Ukrainians were asked to choose between "keep fighting until the war is won" or "seek negotiations as soon as possible." This might seem clear, but it’s not. I’ll break it down.. 👇
Conditional thinking is missing. People may prefer negotiations if they're possible on good terms, but support continued fighting if not. The question forces a choice between two strategies that aren’t mutually exclusive in real life. So, the likelihood of certain outcomes impacts the answers.
Overlapping support gets lost. You can agree with both statements: ✔️ Yes to fighting if needed ✔️ Yes to talks if they could succeed But the poll forces a false binary, so nuance is erased.
Context matters — and is ignored. Would you support negotiations if it meant losing territory? What if it saved lives but froze the front lines? The poll doesn’t ask. That context changes everything.
As I indicated in my next post, the territorial concession question is key, but the binary elements of Gallup's poll questions are pretty clear.
Agree, that is the key question. To that, this poll also came out.. I mostly just found Gallup being unprofessional and sensationalistic on this poll, presenting it as a collapse of support for war effort. One should expect better from one of the major pollsters. united24media.com/latest-news/...
A key takeaway from both polls is that attitudes have shifted toward greater willingness to compromise, though Russia’s capitulation terms remain unpopular.
Given that peace plans from the U.S. and Europe won’t actually end the war because Moscow rejects them, the rising tolerance for Russia’s terms (up from 10% to 17% between May and August, says the KIIS survey) seems most important.
Those numbers seem small, but (1) they're not, and (2) I assume it's difficult to express support for Russia's terms, given that such speech, even in a poll, might constitute a felony, seeing as how it ostensibly endorses Russian talking points, which is illegal under Ukraine's martial laws.
If I was to speculate here I guess Ukrainians today might be lesser inclined to believe the war can be won. If so a negotiated peace with some level of compromise is what you are left with. That would amount to the change measured in these poll. People might still prefer the war to be won though.
That really stings. It's their war and should be ended on whatever terms they deem acceptable... but we've also really fucked them over.
The country would have collapsed by now without Western aid.
I feel like on that side I _kinda_ agree with early Russian propaganda, sad as that is. The collective West never provided enough help in the early days to seize real strategic advantage, even though Russia was caught with it's pants down after the first attack. 1/2
At the same time, it did provide enough help to stop Ukraine from collapsing, and so we got a long meat grinder. Would Ukraine's total collapse be any better than what we have? Probably not, but current situation sucks enough that I long for alternate timelines.
It’s a question for future historians, assuming there’s a future.
Yes, and I have supported giving them everything they need since 2014. Now, the entire country's existence relies on the moods and vibes of the guy wandering on the White House roof and the party that thinks he's a genius.
I hesitate to describe the billions in aid and intelligence sharing as "fucking them over."
I have no hesitation in describing the actions of this administration as "fucking them over."
The Biden administration put in motion an unsustainable aid policy. Clearly, Trump seeks to cut loose from Ukraine, but today's situation isn't the consequence solely of Orange Man. In any event, the US has invested far more in this conflict than I ever would have expected. "Fucked over" is wrong.
Would the war have been different, had Biden used the Lend Lease act signed in May 2022 to flood Ukraine with weapon systems from US boneyards (including F-16 jets with retired foreign pilots at first), gave long range missiles and removed any limitations on how Ukraine uses the weapons?
This administration cut already approved aid and the Commander in Chief says he has no idea who did it, restarts when he's called on it. Gives Russia 50 days to do whatever they want, no, 10 to 12 days, now we've had "productive" meetings, and Russia keeps going. What else do you call it?
Add up the billions in aid that's reached Ukraine since Trump took office, and then sprinkle in the secondary sanctions just imposed on India. There are obviously criticisms to be made against Trump's Ukraine policies, but you're painting with too broad a brush.
Hi - defense industry worker here. The USG has been captured by the industry which uses it to fund weapons programs most beneficial to industry, not what the government need for this conflict. IE hundred million dollar ISR platforms, not artillery shells, drones or missiles. And if this conflict
is any guide, procurement can’t be turned from that even with dire need. After all these years they - the entire west can only make 1/4 of the artillery shells Russia does. Government has been captured.
Guess the two are closely related. Without faith in the US helping to win, negotiations seems the only way out.
The exhaustion is terrible from sleepless nights and stress but surrender to Russia would create a refugee crisis in Europe from fleeing Ukrainians…MILLIONS!!! Ukrainians still support the war but because of Trump and EU unpreparedness, confidence has taken a hit.
I don't think that's an accurate assessment of migration flows in the event that Kyiv agrees to Russia’s terms, but clearly there's already a refugee crisis.
Ukrainians will not live under Russian rule. They who can will leave. They know very well what it means just as thousands of Russians left Russia after the invasion began, because they knew exactly what it meant and how ruthlessly their lives would be terminated on the front line