44% of Ukrainians believe it's time to start official peace talks with Russia, survey finds.

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Almost 44% of Ukrainians think that it is time for official peace negotiations with Russia, according to a survey published by the ZN.ua media outlet on July 15.   At the same time, a majority of respondents were also opposed to the current ceasefire conditions laid out by Russian President Vladimir Putin, which would entail the complete Ukrainian withdrawal from five regions that Russia currently illegally occupies, either in whole or in part. The figure nonetheless represented an increase in the number of Ukrainians who were in favor of negotiations compared to a similar poll conducted in May 2023, which found that 23% of respondents supported entering talks with Russia.

According to the ZN.ua survey, 35% said they were opposed to peace negotiations, and 21% said they were undecided. There was some degree of regional discrepancy in the results, with the highest number of respondents in favor of negotiations being in the south of Ukraine, at 60%. In western Ukraine, 35% said they supported peace talks, a similar figure to those from eastern Ukraine (33%), where the bulk of the heaviest fighting and associated war-related destruction is ongoing.

An overwhelming majority of respondents (83%) said they were opposed to the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from the partially occupied oblasts of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson, which were illegally annexed by Russia in October 2022. Another 76% said they believed that Putin would only allow a peace deal on his own terms. A slim majority (61%) were not ready to give any concessions to Russia in order to obtain a peace deal, and 66% of respondents said they still believed in military victory over Russia.

More than half (51%) said that a return to the 1991 borders, which would include all four partially occupied regions and Crimea, to be the minimum conditions for a peace agreement.

Kremlin admits Russia 'de facto' at war, calls Ukraine 'occupying force'

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov later clarified his words, saying that "de jure" it remained a "military operation," but "de facto" had become a war.