Massive Russian drone and missile attacks on infrastructure and cities, 20 hours or more each day without water, electricity, and at times even heat, and outside temperatures of -15 Celsius (5 Fahrenheit): This is what many Ukrainians are being forced to endure this winter.
Opinion polls show the mood in the country worsening as exhaustion and tension take hold, said Oleksiy Antypovych of the Ukrainian polling outfit Rating Group. He explained that the number of people fed up with endless Russian attacks and this year's extremely cold winter weather is growing but added that this was not the result of changing political tides but rather the general emotional state of Ukrainians after four years of war.
Unwilling to compromise
Despite these very trying circumstances, Ukrainians remain unwilling to give in to the Kremlin's demands and accept peace at any price. "[Russian President Vladimir] Putin's use of attacks and the cold to pressure Ukraine has worsened the mood. But that changes nothing about how people feel about Vladimir Putin, Russia or the war that Russia is prosecuting. Ukrainians don't want to make any concessions on territory or anything else," Antypovych told DW.
Andriy Bychenko of the Ukrainian Razumkov Center sees it similarly. "A majority of Ukrainians know, from recent events as well as history, that capitulation and the signing of an unfavorable peace agreement will not make things better. You don't need to explain anything to the Ukrainians about who the Russians really are and how this all began. They saw it firsthand in the Kherson, Kharkiv and Kyiv regions. Public opinion on this is not shifting much. That's why, despite it all, Ukraine is still holding on," he told DW.
A poll conducted by the Kyiv International Institute for Sociology (KIIS) between January 9 and 14 found that the overwhelming majority of Ukrainians (69%) continue to view Russia's war of aggression as an existential threat, with people convinced Russia will ultimately either "carry out a genocide," or "destroy the Ukrainian nation and its statehood." That number was at 66% in February 2025, Nevertheless, 77% of those polled said Ukraine had the power to continue to resist Russia despite its advances.
"Poll results show that Ukrainians remain steadfast and optimistic despite all the difficulties the war brings. A clear majority believes that Ukraine still has the power to keep putting up effective resistance," KIIS Executive Director Anton Grushetskyi told DW. "Only a small minority sees Ukrainian resistance as pointless."
Russian infrastructure attacks push Ukrainians to the brink
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Unbroken solidarity
Relentless Russian attacks, the destruction of infrastructure and the prolonged duration of the war have not made Ukrainians more willing to compromise with the aggressor, said Oleh Saakyan of the Ukraine-based National Platform for Resilience and Solidarity. In fact, he explained, Russia's ceaseless belligerence has had the opposite effect: Exhaustion, exasperation and pent-up anger have sparked even greater fury toward Russia.
He explained that social tensions were periodically vented via protest in Ukraine but that these tended to be of a local nature and not aimed at the central government in Kyiv. "So far they have been aimed at very specific local inaction or decision making. We haven't seen evidence of increased dissatisfaction with the central government, neither in public nor in polling," he pointed out, adding that Russia's attacks and Ukraine's own infrastructure problems had done nothing to change that. "Various polls also show," he said, "that a significant portion of Ukrainian society is ready to see the war through."
Ukrainians working together
One of the biggest mistakes that Russia made when it launched its war was to completely underestimate the strength of Ukrainian society and its ability to organize itself, said military expert Oleksiy Kopytko, a former Ukrainian Defense Ministry advisor. In his view, Russia continued to misread the mood among Ukrainians.
Kopytko highlighted the fact that Ukrainian society had experienced something unique and that had served them well in this situation. He said that their ability to expand the practice of helping and being helped by family and friends outward, to include interactions with acquaintances even total strangers, had been key to the nation's survival. "Ukrainians still tend to offer blind trust. Being a crook is still considered shameful. That allows Ukrainians to stand up to all of the awful things going on around them," he said.
Support for President Zelenskyy
As the KIIS poll showed, 69% of Ukrainians remain unconvinced that current negotiations will lead to lasting peace. Nevertheless, they are still interested in the process. "All hope and trust lies mainly with [Ukrainian President] Volodymyr Zelenskyy," said Rating Group's Antypovych, "not with Russia, not with negotiating groups, not with individual foreign leaders."
Experts underscore the fact that social cohesion and internal unity are key for Ukraine's leadership. "Unconditional support for the president is an advantage for him during negotiations. Ukrainians have already lived through the negative experience of the Minsk agreements, which only led to more war. That is why Ukrainians are so clear-eyed about how important solidarity is today," said political scientist Saakyan.
This article was translated from German by Jon Shelton.
