Russian Troops Are War-Weary, but Want to Conquer More of Ukraine

The whole world is fighting against us, and they are not getting very far,” said Yevgeniy, a Russian contract soldier who fought in Ukraine until December 2023. After three years of fighting, however, Russian forces have almost complete control of only one of them, Luhansk. In the other three regions — Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia — Russia controls 65 to 75 percent of the territory. In recent months, President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine has softened his position, accepting a proposed cease-fire without security guarantees, suggesting he would accept at least a temporary loss of the territory already under Russian occupation. Interviews with the soldiers and Russian opinion surveys show that such a truce would also fail to satisfy a large part of Russian society.