Benedict Vigers
After more than two years of grinding conflict, Ukrainians are increasingly weary of the war with Russia. In Gallup’s latest surveys of Ukraine, conducted in August and October 2024, an average of 52% of Ukrainians would like to see their country negotiate an end to the war as soon as possible. Nearly four in 10 Ukrainians (38%) believe their country should keep fighting until victory.
Ukrainians’ current attitudes toward the war represent a decisive shift from where they stood after it began in late February 2022. Surveyed in the months after Russia launched its full-scale invasion, Ukrainians were defiant, with 73% preferring fighting until victory.
In 2023, support for fighting until victory slipped, but more than twice as many Ukrainians favored a continued fight (63%) over a negotiated peace (27%). Fatigue has intensified this year, with support for negotiated peace rising to 52%, the first time it has reached a majority.
Rising fatigue with the war comes at a time when its immediate future is in question. Russia has made military inroads on the front line in recent months, despite Ukraine’s incursion into the Kursk region. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's "victory plan" to end the war, which includes joining NATO and using Western long-range missiles against Russian territory, also received mixed reactions from Western allies when presented last month -- overlapping the timing of Gallup's October fieldwork. In the past few days, outgoing President Joe Biden has given Ukraine the green light to strike inside Russia using long-range U.S. missiles.
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