Most Russians see war in Ukraine as a war with the West, says pollster

The Current10:46How Russians feel about the war in Ukraine

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Most Russians support their country's war in Ukraine, seeing it as part of a wider conflict, says the director of an independent organization monitoring public opinion in Russia.

"The majority of Russians see it as a conflict, not exactly with Ukraine, but with the West about Ukraine," said Denis Volkov, director of the Levada Center in Moscow.

That feeling is tied to an idea that the U.S. escalated the conflict after Russia's invasion on Feb. 24, the pollstertold The Current's Matt Galloway.

"Public opinion was consolidated behind the Russian leadership we saw this so-called rally-behind-the-flag effect," he said.

Volkov co-authored a recent study looking at how Russians feel about thewar, published by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Based on six months of polling and sociological research from February to August, as well as eight focus groups, it cites support for the war as consistently above 70 per cent. Among those, more than halfexpressed unequivocal support, while the rest had reservations but didn't see an alternative to what Russia has called a special military operation.

According to the report, 60 per cent of Russians over 55 years of age expressed national pride about Russia's action in Ukraine, compared to 33 per cent of those aged 18-24.

Volkov noted that support for the war was stronger among older Russians, those who lived in rural areas, and those who consumed their news via state television broadcasts. Younger Russians, those in urban areas, and those who got news online via social media were more skeptical, he said. He added divisions along these lines are typical for many issues.

That support remained stable for the first six months of the war, while Russians perceived the conflict as "a distant war," that would not "affect them directly," Volkov said.

But that began to change when Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the mobilization of additional Russian troops on Sept. 21, he said. The move, which occurred after Volkov's report was published, called up 300,000 young men to fight in Ukraine.

Volkov said the partial mobilization resulted in a drop of six or seven percentage points in approval ratings for Putin, the government and prime minister.

"We saw that some people started to change their opinions, but still, yes, we have a rather high support," he said.

"I would say the predominant attitude towards this is that it's our duty to go and serve."

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Mistrust of West entrenched

Russia stepped up airstrikes on Ukrainian cities this week, killing and wounding dozens of people and damaging key infrastructure.

After missiles hit Kyiv on Monday, The New York Times correspondent Valerie Hopkins talked to Russians on the streets of Moscow about the attack.

"The majority of people I asked, asked me what happened. They returned my questions with quizzical stares and said, 'I don't know, I don't follow the news,'" Hopkins told The Current on Tuesday.

She said it was mainly youngpeople who had heard about the attacks on social media, and some expressed "regret or remorse for what happened."

"I did actually meet one person who was enthusiastic but thought that this was just the beginning, that it didn't go far enough," she said.

The person told her "that Russian missiles should actually be targeting the U.S. because they see the U.S. as organizing everything and using Ukraine just as a proxy," she said.

Volkov said viewpoints like this have become entrenched by decades of distrust between Russia and the West. The fall of the Soviet Union created hope for closer ties, but then disillusionment when that didn't happen, he added.

In more recent years, Russian politicians have capitalized on that distrust to boost their own popularity, and "consolidate public opinion behind the leadership, as opposed to the adversary from the West," he said.

"This long history makes it very hard for public opinion to change, because it's ... rooted very deeply in the people's understanding of what is happening," he said.