How Putin stays strong in Russia, four years into war in Ukraine | Russia-Ukraine war News

Moscow, Russia — What was meant to be a swift military operation to topple the Ukrainian government and take control of the country has now dragged on for four devastating years.

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s promise to protect the people of Donbas, who, according to him, had been subjected to bullying and genocide by the “Kyiv regime” for the previous eight years, has meant that hundreds of settlements have been wiped off the face of the Earth and millions of lives have been broken, in both countries.

The quick victory that was assured in 2022 did not happen. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy did not flee his country, and since then, Russia has been bogged down in what increasingly appears to be an endless conflict.

Four years on, Russia remains firmly on a military footing, reorienting its economy towards weapons production. Western sanctions are hitting harder than before, while Ukraine’s attacks on Russian military and energy facilities are causing significant damage.

Social anxiety is rising, too. Activists report hundreds of cases of domestic violence and attacks involving soldiers returning from the front line.

Still, life in Russia’s big cities seems to be the same. Most people we tried to speak to in the streets of Moscow were unwilling to comment on the war – at least on camera. However, many of those we interviewed said that their lives had not changed much despite growing prices and the web of sanctions and restrictions on Russia.

The main message from the Kremlin to the Russian people remains the same: the West is the enemy.

The government assures Russians that external enemies are to blame for all the difficulties that are gradually mounting. The enemies want to destroy Russia, divide it and take away its natural resources. Official television channels promote the narrative that war is an integral part of Russian identity.  Similar ideas are introduced in schools.

Media outlets tell people that Russia is winning (as it always does). Ukraine will collapse, Western unity will fracture and price growth in the country will slow down. People just need to be patient, united and must support the government — because the alternative is worse.

Russian channels never show how hundreds of thousands of people, including young children, women and the elderly, in Kyiv, Kharkiv, and other Ukrainian cities are surviving without power, water or heat in the freezing cold.

So after four years, the war has become commonplace and often goes unnoticed.

Still, many Russians remain very enthusiastic about it. They long for victory, but very few are willing to join the army.

The Russian state is concerned about Russians accessing alternative views on YouTube, Instagram, Telegram and other global social media platforms that undermine its rhetoric. Therefore, Russia has restricted access to almost all foreign social media.

Instead, the government has developed and now actively promotes its national “Max” messaging app. It is supposed to be installed on all devices sold in Russia. The messenger is meant to replace Telegram and WhatsApp, and become a payment system and a tool for access to the “State Services” digital platform.

Many believe that authorities can monitor Max users‚ and so they refuse to install it. Meanwhile, Russian journalists in exile have discovered that Putin’s family has a share in Max.

To be sure, Russia has been participating in peace negotiations since they resumed in 2025 when Donald Trump returned to power in the United States.

But these talks have not brought any decent progress so far. Russia puts forward demands that Ukraine can’t accept. But neither Ukrainian drone strikes on Russian territory nor international sanctions — or economic slowdown — have made Moscow change its position.

The economy is strained, but it functions. The situation on the front is not perfect, but Russia continues to slowly move forward and take more Ukrainian territory under control. And it says it won’t stop until its demands are met.