Ukraine war LIVE: Putin election fears explode as Russian public opinion turns on war | World | News

A majority of Russians, when questioned on whether they support continuing the war in Ukraine, backed peace talks for the first time during the conflict.

The poll, carried out by Russian Field, comes ahead of next year’s presidential election in March.

74 percent said that they would be happy for President Putin to sign a peace deal right away.

The rare wide-ranging poll, which was carried out in October, also found that the majority are against a further round of military mobilisations.

Andrei Kolesnikov, Senior Fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, wrote that President Putin will try to use next year’s election to “legitmise his war”.

Mr Kolesnikov said that most Russians want to end the war “as quickly as possible and begin to live better, more safely, and more peacefully”.

He added: “But it is unlikely that this will happen without regime change,”

Earlier today, President Putin reportedly lost 12 elite marines after they triggered an explosion from nearby live ammunition while they were cooking food on an open fire.

While eight of the soldiers part of the Vladivostok-based 155th Separate Guards Marine Brigade were killed on the spot, four others died in hospital, according to News 166.

A further eight soldiers were left wounded in the bizarre incident which happened on November 3, it has been claimed.

The devastating explosion reportedly happened at the Kuzminsky military training ground in the Rostov region, near Ukraine, and was caused by an RPG-7 grenade launcher shell after it caught fire.

The casualties were part of troops believed to be due for deployment in the illegal war in Ukraine launched by the Kremlin in February 2022.

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