Putin Dealt Blow in New Poll on Ukraine War

If they could turn back time, more than a third of polled Russians said, they would cancel their country's invasion of Ukraine, a figure marking the highest level of opposition facing Russian President Vladimir Putin over his "special military operation" since the start of the war.

In a recent survey conducted by polling agency Russian Field, 37 percent of respondents said they "would rather" or "would definitely" cancel Russia's military operation if they had the chance to go back in time. The results are based on the answers of 1,600 Russian citizens surveyed via phone from January 11 to January 19.

More than half of the survey respondents said they "would rather not" or "would definitely not" cancel Putin's war, but the results mimic past surveys that have shown a growing rejection of the invasion in Ukraine. Moscow-based research group Chronicles found in November that support for the Kremlin's operation had dropped to 12 percent among citizens—down from 22 percent of voters who said they supported the war in February 2023. Another Russian Field survey conducted in December found that roughly half of Russians were wishing for an end to Putin's war in the new year.

The most recent Russian Field survey published this week found that citizens age 18 to 45 were more likely to say that they would cancel the war, with nearly half of respondents in that age range rejecting Putin's aggression. Citizens older than 45, as well as male respondents, were "significantly more likely" to support the Kremlin's military operation, the polling group said in its findings.

Newsweek reached out to the Kremlin for comment via email on Friday evening.

The polling results were posted roughly six weeks before Russia's next presidential election, scheduled for March 17, where Putin is anticipated to win a fifth term in office. A handful of candidates have announced their intentions to challenge the Kremlin leader's reelection, including Boris Nadezhdin, member of the center-right Civic Initiative Party who has campaigned on promises to bring peace and end the conflict in Ukraine.

Putin's war has also faced backlash from families of Russian soldiers deployed to the front lines. The Kremlin leader's election headquarters was disrupted last week by a group of wives whose husbands have been deployed to Ukraine, with many asking what could be done to bring their loved ones home.

Still, Putin entered the new year with an approval rating of 83 percent, and over half of the respondents in the Russian Field survey published this week said that their interests were "best represented" by the current president. Nadezhdin came in second, but the margin was wide, with only 2.3 percent of voters indicating that the opposition candidate best represented them.