‘Primary cause for optimism’ is a perception that struggle in Ukraine will finish in 2026 with Moscow’s ‘aims’ achieved,’ pollster says.
Revealed On 25 Dec 2025
A majority of Russians count on the struggle in Ukraine to finish in 2026, a state-owned analysis centre stated, as Russian forces make advances on the battlefield and efforts intensify to reach a ceasefire deal between Kyiv and Moscow.
VTsIOM, Russia’s main public opinion analysis centre, stated on Wednesday that its annual survey of sentiment across the outgoing 12 months and expectations for the approaching 12 months discovered Russians are viewing 2026 with “rising optimism”.
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“Expectations for subsequent 12 months historically look far more optimistic … In different phrases, whereas the destructive notion of the present state of affairs persists, Russians have turn out to be extra more likely to settle for (or consider, hope?) future enhancements this 12 months, however they nonetheless achieve this with warning,” the organisation stated in a overview of its survey findings launched on-line.
In a year-end presentation, VTsIOM deputy head Mikhail Mamonov stated 70 p.c of 1,600 folks surveyed considered 2026 as being a extra “profitable” 12 months for Russia than this 12 months, with 55 p.c of respondents linking hope for a greater 12 months to a attainable finish to what Russia formally calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine.
“The principle cause for optimism is the attainable completion of the particular navy operation and the achievement of the acknowledged aims, in step with the nationwide pursuits outlined by the president,” Mamonov stated on the presentation.
Mamonov pointed to the Russian navy’s ongoing offensive in Ukraine, Washington’s reluctance to finance the Ukraine struggle and the European Union’s incapability to totally change the United States’ position in Ukraine – financially and militarily – as key components behind the prospects for an eventual deal to finish the preventing.
On the conclusion of the battle, reintegration of Russian navy veterans into society and the reconstruction of Russian-controlled areas of Ukraine, in addition to Russian border areas, would be the principal priorities, Mamonov added.
Whereas the precise stage of Russian public fatigue with the struggle is tough to measure as a result of strict state controls on the media, expressions of public dissent in addition to the prosecution of those that criticise Moscow’s struggle on its neighbour, roughly two-thirds of Russians assist peace talks, in accordance with impartial pollster Levada, the best quantity because the begin of the struggle in 2022.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated in feedback launched on Wednesday that he can be keen to withdraw troops from Ukraine’s japanese industrial heartland as a part of a plan to finish the struggle, if Moscow reciprocated by additionally pulling again its forces and allowed the world to turn out to be a demilitarised zone monitored by worldwide forces.
In feedback to reporters about an overarching 20-point plan that negotiators from Ukraine and the US had hammered out in Florida in current days, Zelenskyy additionally stated {that a} related association may very well be attainable for the world across the Zaporizhzhia nuclear energy plant, which is at the moment beneath Russian management.
Russia has given no indication that it’ll conform to any sort of withdrawal from land it has seized in Ukraine and has lengthy insisted that Kyiv should hand over the remaining territory it nonetheless holds within the Donbas industrial space earlier than any discussions on the cessation of preventing.
Russia has captured most of Luhansk and about 70 p.c of Donetsk – the 2 areas that make up the Donbas.
Zelenskyy additionally stated that determining the long run management of the Donbas as a part of the plan was “essentially the most tough level”, and making a demilitarised financial zone within the area would require tough discussions on how far troops can be required to maneuver again and the place worldwide forces can be stationed.
Such discussions ought to be held on the leaders’ stage, he stated.
