DPA
LONDON
Support from the Russian public for the war in Ukraine “is falling significantly,” Britain’s Defence Ministry said in its daily bulletin on Sunday, citing recent polling in Russia.
“With Russia unlikely to achieve major battlefield successes in the next several months, maintaining even tacit approval of the war amongst the population is likely to be increasingly difficult for the Kremlin,” it said.
The British ministry pointed to a report by an independent Russian media outlet which claimed access to data collected by Russia’s Federal Protective Service for internal use.
“The data indicated 55 percent of Russians favour peace talks with Ukraine, with only 25 percent claiming to support continuing the conflict,” the ministry said.
At the start of the war, around 80 percent of Russians had supported what the Kremlin terms a “special military operation,” the ministry said.
The British Defence Ministry has published information sourced from the country’s intelligence services since the war began at the end of February.
A senior US intelligence official has also said that the slowed pace of fighting in Ukraine is set to continue over the next several months and the United States sees no evidence that Ukraine’s will to resist Russia has diminished, despite Moscow’s crippling attacks on the Ukrainian power grid.
Avril Haines, director of national intelligence in the Biden administration, said on Saturday that she believed Russian President Vladimir Putin had been surprised that his military had not achieved more in its war on Ukraine.
