According to the Razumkov Centre polls, while in September–October 2023, 21% of Ukrainians believed in talks with Russia as "an efficient way to achieve peace, which should be used now", and 63% disagreed with this, in September 2024, the share of those who think so reached 35%, while a relative majority (48%) still disagreed.
Some see in this dynamic of responses kind of "fatigue" from the war and the willingness of Ukrainians to make any concessions in order to end the war. But, as it turned out, readiness for talks and readiness for concessions are not the same. In August 2024, during a joint survey by Razumkov Centre and Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Foundation, respondents were also asked about their willingness to negotiate and their readiness to make concessions. Among those who believed that "peace talks are possible now", only 27% considered it acceptable to recognize the occupied territories of Ukraine as part of Russia in exchange for Russia's cessation of aggression, 57% considered it unacceptable, and among all those polled, only 9% considered it acceptable, unacceptable — 81%. Only 17% of all respondents consider Ukraine's refusal to join the European Union acceptable (unacceptable — 71%), refusal to join NATO — 20.5% against 67%, respectively.
It is interesting to compare these results with the results of a poll in Russia, which was conducted almost simultaneously with Razumkov Centre (at the end of September — beginning of October this year) by sociologists of the Russian research institution Levada Center. They asked respondents questions like this: "Do you think it necessary to continue military operations or to start peace talks?". The majority (54%) of the polled Russians were in favour of peace talks, and the minority (39%) supported continuation of hostilities. Two years ago, in September 2022, 48% of Russians supported talks, and 44% supported hostilities.
At the same time, in the Levada Center poll, "peace talks" were opposed to "hostilities", while in the context of the question put for Ukrainians by Razumkov Centre, there was no such opposition (it implied that peace talks can be conducted even during hostilities).
It is interesting that even among those Russians who say they support Putin's activities as president, the majority (51%) stood for peace talks (41% — for continued hostilities).
When Russians were asked "If President Putin decided to end the military conflict with Ukraine this week, would you support this decision?", support for this decision turned out to be even greater (72%) than support for peace talks when answering the question without reference to Putin (against — only 20%). The increase in the number of supporters of the war end in such a wording is understandable, taking into account Russian realities — according to the logic of some Russian respondents, if representatives of the "competent authorities" suddenly visit them and ask why they gave such answers, Putin will be to blame. It should also be noted that the share of supporters of the immediate end to the war ("if Putin so decides") has increased compared to May 2023 (when sociologists first asked Russians such a question — hen, 62% of respondents would support such a decision).
So, if you look for an answer to the question, who is more tired of the war — Ukrainians or Russians — in the above results, it turns out that the Russians are much more tired.
