2024-07-07 13:08:15
CTK
Updated 6 hours ago
A growing number of Russians would consider a nuclear strike on Ukraine justified, but a narrow majority remain opposed. This follows from a survey published this week by the independent Levada center.
Roughly one in three Russians believe that a nuclear strike against Ukraine would be justified. In Levada’s survey, ten percent of respondents said that such an attack would be “definitely” justified, another 24 percent said that it would be “probably” justified. The total number of supporters of a nuclear attack has thus increased by five percentage points over the past year.
52 percent of respondents are against the use of nuclear weapons against Ukraine, compared to 56 percent in April last year. The opinion that the use of nuclear weapons cannot be justified is more common among young Russians, namely 63 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds.
Since the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin has spoken several times about the extreme possibility of using nuclear weapons against Ukraine and the West. In recent weeks, this Russian rhetoric has intensified. Russia and Belarus began the second phase of tactical nuclear weapons exercises last month.
Levada’s survey also revealed, among other things, that approximately half of Russians continue to follow Ukrainian events relatively closely. The level of support for the actions of the Russian armed forces in Ukraine remains high. Forty-four percent definitely support them, 33 percent rather support them, and only 17 percent of Russians do not support them. Forty-eight percent of Russian citizens even said that military actions give them a sense of national pride.
At the same time, however, more than half of Russians (58 percent) are in favor of holding peace negotiations. At the same time, the majority of respondents believe that Russia is more interested in the negotiations. Conversely, 37 percent of respondents believe that it is necessary to continue military operations.