On some level, the data likely reflect an impulse, whether born of fear or passivity, to repeat approved messages rather than articulate your own. Even before the war, Russia was not the kind of place where you willy-nilly shared your political beliefs with strangers, let alone with those who called out of the blue. Where I am, people typically express their opinion at rallies, on social networks and among their inner circle. The sanctions now hitting Russia are being described as economic war - they aim to isolate the country and create a deep recession there. And when it comes to Russian war casualties, Koneva said the losses have been successfully covered up by the country’s strict censorship measures. It’s 9 pm in Moscow and the police have already broken up the bulk of the protests. At the same time, there have been cases of pro-war pupils recording their teachers making dovish statements in class, and reporting them to the authorities. Thousands of non-Ukrainians have served in its armed forces since Russia’s invasion in 2014. Ukrainian agricultural exports surged in December after it successfully forced Russia out of the western half of the Black Sea, Britain’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) has said. Ukraine’s armed forces have denied having anything to do with the attack. “The Kyiv regime is continuing to show its vicious side in that they are striking civilian infrastructure. They are striking people, civilians,” he said, adding that the attack on the same day in Donetsk which killed 25 was a “heinous act of terrorism”. Half of Russians say it would be right to use military force to keep Ukraine out of NATO It is the duty of the military to analyse that threat, and they still might be proved wrong. But European nations closer to Russian borders appear to be taking it more seriously. A source familiar with the situation said the drone fell at about 7am local time but had not affected fuel output. Prime Minister Viktor Orban has been highly critical of the EU's financial and military aid for Ukraine and has maintained close ties with Russia. A little earlier, we told you about a report in the Financial Times that the EU was proposing to sabotage Hungary's economy if Budapest blocks further aid for Ukraine this week. Mr Zelenskyy has called for public officials to disclose their incomes to increase transparency and eliminate corruption as Ukraine tries to meet the stringent requirements for its bid to join the European Union. Only aircraft deployed to protect energy facilities, or those carrying top Russian or foreign officials, will be allowed to fly with special permission in the designated zones, according to the Vedomosti daily newspaper. Russia strikes Ukraine's big cities, bears down on Mariupol For one thing the mobilisation was announced too late, when Russian troops were already being defeated by Ukrainian ones. For another, it has exposed how the centralised administrative machinery, built by Mr Putin, struggles in an emergency. That is because it is built on corruption and sycophancy, not competence. And as Russia's war in Ukraine continues, the U.S. and other Western allies are hitting it with more economic sanctions. Throughout the war, researchers have been trying to understand what factors would reduce public support in Russia. “The feeling of the inevitability of war from the life of Russians, the feeling that the war is now with us, and we are with this life, caused the emergence of new meanings of war,” Zhuravlev said. Koneva said researchers found that people in this group, the largest single segment of the population, have contradictory attitudes toward the war, consisting of narratives from both sides of the conflict. Koneva said her research group has focused on examining the opinions of the core audience that supports Russia’s war in Ukraine. At first glance, the Koneva group's most recent polls from Russia continue to show broad public support for the war. Ukraine’s foreign ministry has slapped down Slovakia’s prime minister for saying the war with Russia will only end when Kyiv gives up its claim to Crimea and the Donbas. Russian forces have advanced near the heavily-contested eastern town of Avdiivka, currently held by Ukraine, according to reports. Cuts have already seen the size of the British Army fall from more than 100,000 in 2010 to around 73,000 now. Gen Sanders said that within the next three years the British Army needed to be 120,000 strong with the addition of reserves. But he said even that is not enough - so the Army should be designed to expand rapidly to enable the first echelon, resource the second echelon, and train and equip the citizen army that must follow. “They are also of the opinion that, while Ukraine could not stand up to an all-out Russian invasion, Russia would lose much more from that than any military victory would win,” he said. “The reason why 75% of Russians think Russia will not invade Ukraine is simply because of what they read in their newspapers and see on their TV. There is basically no hysteria, no beating of the war drum, a consistent message that we do not want a war and will not start one,” Pozner said. “It speaks to the view that, should Ukraine become a NATO member, and should NATO forces be deployed on Russia’s doorstep, that would constitute an existential threat and therefore cannot be allowed,” Pozner told CNN by email. Across the country and across all ages, a majority of Ukrainians say they are not “one people” with Russians and that the two countries should not be one. But the poll also found that more Russians think it would be wrong than right to use military force “to reunite Russia and Ukraine” – two countries with a long and complicated history of being intertwined. Refusal can mean a jail sentence, though there is the option of civilian service out of uniform too. People get used even to war, especially if they live far from the battleground. Thus it has undermined the very sense of unity and nationhood that Mr Putin hoped to manipulate. Even if the baseline result may be affected by self-censorship ... shifts in the trend over time show that people are willing to report changes in opinion, she wrote. He says the firm asks about peoples' feelings, and is seeing that both groups — those who support and oppose the military's actions — are anxious and afraid.
Ukraine
