More Ukrainians want talks to end war with Russia: Gallup

More than half of Ukrainians want talks to end the war with Russia, according to Gallup polls released Tuesday, the war’s 1,000th day. 

The surveys, conducted in August and October, found that 52 percent of Ukrainians want their nation to negotiate an end to the war in Eastern Europe that has been raging for more than 2 1/2 years. About 38 percent of Ukrainians want their military to keep fighting until it wins the war. Some 9 percent did not know or refused to share their opinion on the matter. 

The outlook of the Ukrainians is different from the period when the invasion began in February 2022. Just months after Russia’s invasion kicked off, around 73 percent of Ukrainians wanted to keep fighting. 

The support for continued fighting dropped among Ukrainians in 2023, when 63 percent wanted the conflict to continue while 27 percent preferred a negotiated peace, according to the survey. 

Ukraine fired U.S.-made long-range missiles inside Russia for the first time since the Biden administration lifted a restriction on using such weapons. On the same day, Russian President Vladimir Putin lowered the threshold for the use of nuclear weapons. 

The support for continuing the war has dropped among Ukrainians, dipping to below 50 percent throughout the nation this year, Gallup noted. The biggest declines were in regions that are far from the front lines. 

About 52 percent of respondents agree that Kyiv should be open to making some territorial concessions as part of a cease-fire, according to the poll. Another 38 percent disagreed, while another 10 percent did not know. 

U.S. officials say Russia has escalated the war by sending about 10,000 North Korean troops to Kursk to battle the Ukrainian military, an area where Kyiv staged a surprise attack in August and gained some ground. 

Russia now argues the U.S. is escalating the conflict by giving Ukraine’s government its approval to use long-range U.S. missiles at targets inside Russia.

The Gallup poll was conducted among 1,000 respondents per survey each year. The margin of error was 3 percentage points.