Internal Kremlin polls show that only 25% of Russians support the continuation of the war in Ukraine, while 55% support peace talks, according to independent Russian media.
Meduza says it gained access to a survey conducted by Russia’s Federal Security Service last month. The results are a stark contrast to a July poll that showed 57% of Russians favored the war.
Denis Volkov, director of the Levada Center, an independent sociology institute in Moscow, said the number of Russians in favor of peace talks and rejecting war began to grow rapidly after the announcement in September of a “partial mobilization” project involving 300,000 troops.
“This is a complete reluctance to personally participate in the war,” Volkov told Meduza. “The stakes are higher now, and people want to start negotiations.”
British Ministry of Defence The FPS poll’s results echoed those of an October survey, adding: “With Russia not making major gains on the battlefield in the next few months, even tacit approval of the war among the population is likely to become increasingly difficult for the Kremlin.”
Other changes:
►Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky urged his fellow citizens more than ever to help each other during the harsh winter, saying in an overnight video address on Sunday: “To endure this winter means to defend everything.”
►The World Bank’s estimates of how much it will cost to rebuild Ukraine’s infrastructure after the war have increased from 367 billion USD in June to 527-632 billion. USD today.
RUSSIA RESPONDS to the $60 mark:The West may be cut off from Russian oil, but it has been reducing purchases for months
Russia calls for ban on oil price caps
Russia’s top official on Sunday called for a global ban on oil price caps, a day before a The European Union and the United States announced a $60 per barrel purchase limit for Russian oil.
Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandr Novak said Russia would cut output rather than cap sales, even though the price of Russian oil had already fallen to nearly $60 a barrel.
“We will sell oil and its products to those countries that will work with us under market conditions,” said A. Novakas. He said the limit imposed by the US and much of Europe “goes against all the rules of the World Trade Organisation”.
Zelenskyy, on the other hand, said the cap was too high, calling for a $30 cap. He said a level of $60 a barrel would still allow Russia to earn $100 billion. USD per year of revenue.
Russia has added tankers to its shipping fleet in hopes of selling more oil to China, India and other nations as Europe sharply cuts pipeline purchases. But Western insurers are barred from insuring cargo traded outside the cap, adding to Russia’s export woes.
Russia’s representative to international organizations in Vienna, Austria, Mikhail Ulyanov, tweeted that Europe will be forced to live without Russian oil.
“Very soon #EU will accuse #Russia of using oil as a weapon,” Ulyanov said.
Blinken calls Russia’s war strategy “barbaric” and says sanctions are working
Secretary of State Antony Blinken called Russia’s attack on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure before winter “barbaric” and said the US was trying to supply it with the parts it needed to rebuild.
In an interview with CNN on Sunday, Blinken also said the Biden administration is working with Congress on legislation to designate Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism, while avoiding some of the unintended consequences of such a designation.
And while the series of sanctions imposed on Russia by the United States and its allies have not deterred the Kremlin’s aggression toward Ukraine, Blinken said they are having an effect. Specifically, he said the punitive measures are undermining Russia’s ability to replace its weapons and modernize its economy.
“Every day that these sanctions are in place, the burden on Russia is getting heavier, its ability to prosecute these kinds of wars is getting weaker,” Blinken said.
The US intelligence chief is optimistic about Ukraine’s chances after the winter lull
Battlefield action in Ukraine is expected to decrease as winter approaches. And indeed, the US intelligence chief says the agency has detected a “decrease in the pace of the conflict,” with most of the fighting centered around the city of Bakhmut and Donetsk province in the east.
So what’s next? Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines said both sides intend to use the slowdown to regroup and resupply in preparation for renewed hostilities in the spring.
And it believes that Ukraine will be in a better position to launch a counterattack than the invading forces will be able to repel.
“We’re actually quite skeptical that the Russians will actually be willing to do this,” Haines told Andrea Mitchell in an extended interview with NBC News. “And in this period, I think most optimistically about Ukrainians.
Despite the retreat of the Russian army, Kherson is still being beaten
Russian forces fled the southern city of Kherson last month in a victory over Ukraine, but the region continues to be rocked by Russian shelling. There are frequent power outages, and the governor of the Kherson region, Yaroslav Yanushkevich, said the evacuation of civilians trapped outside the city in Russian-controlled territory would temporarily resume.
Russian forces moved to the east bank of the Dnieper River last month. Yanushkevych said the ban on crossing the waterway would be lifted during daylight hours for Ukrainian citizens who “didn’t have time to leave the temporarily occupied territory.” His report cited a “possible escalation of hostilities in the area.”
Kherson is one of four regions that Russian leader Vladimir Putin illegally annexed in September and vowed to defend as Russian territory. Repeated bombings knocked out power to much of Kherson on Thursday, but Janushkevic said services had been restored to 85% of customers by Sunday.
Contributed by: The Associated Press.
