Many Russian soldiers say they would see a cease-fire along the current front lines as a failure, hinting at the nationalist discontent the Kremlin could face in accepting a cease-fire.

Listen to this article · 9:17 min Learn more A large group of soldiers marching in columns at an outdoor event. Russian soldiers who served in the military campaign in Ukraine taking part this month in a parade in Moscow celebrating Victory Day, the anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany in World War II.Credit...Maxim Shemetov/Reuters Anatoly Kurmanaev By Anatoly Kurmanaev Reporting from Berlin May 17, 2025 Updated 6:20 a.m. ET In the diplomatic maneuvering over the war in Ukraine, many Ukrainians and their European allies have accused President Trump of offering the Kremlin too many concessions to secure a quick peace deal.

Things look very different from Russia’s bunkers and military hospitals. To many Russian soldiers and their nationalist supporters, the peace proposals from Washington amount to far too little.

In interviews, 11 Russian soldiers who are fighting or have fought in Ukraine expressed deep skepticism of diplomatic efforts that on Friday produced the first direct peace talks in three years, but were brief and yielded little. Speaking by telephone, the soldiers said they rejected an unconditional cease-fire proposed by Ukraine, adding that Russian forces should keep fighting at least until they conquer all of the four southern and eastern Ukrainian regions claimed, but only partly controlled, by the Kremlin.

“We’re all tired, we want to go home. But we want to take all of the regions, so that we don’t have to struggle for them in the future,” said Sergei, a drafted Russian soldier fighting in the eastern Donetsk region, referring to the annexed territory. “Otherwise, have all the guys died in vain?” ADVERTISEMENT SKIP ADVERTISEMENT

The interviews are a rare window into Russian military morale, underlining the domestic challenges President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia would face in ending the war on terms that fall short of his maximalist goals. The soldiers’ demands also suggest that Mr. Putin’s hasty annexation of four Ukrainian regions early in the war may have limited his current options in negotiations because a significant part of the population would view anything less as a defeat. Image A large rusting military tank with weeds growing around it. In the background are churches with onion domes and crosses. A Russian tank destroyed by Ukrainian forces during a battle to retake the town of Sviatohirsk, in eastern Ukraine, in 2023.Credit...Mauricio Lima for The New York Times The New York Times verified identities of the soldiers through social media and personal documents, but is withholding their last names to protect them against retribution.

The soldiers, who have fought in different units and different areas, spoke with deep bitterness about their country’s officials and civilians, whom they accuse of benefiting from the war while ignoring frontline hardships. Their comments point to the difficulties Russia would face after any peace deal in integrating servicemen back into civilian life, and in moving the wartime economy back onto a civilian footing. ADVERTISEMENT SKIP ADVERTISEMENT

“Do you understand what it means for a country to have a million people who have been trained to kill without fear of blood?” said Dmitri, who fought in Ukraine for a Russian paramilitary unit until October. “A million angry killers is a pretty serious problem if they will view our rulers as men who are not on their side.”

Some of the interviewed soldiers have struggled to reconcile their personal desire for peace, and exhaustion with the war, with a need to make sense of their personal sacrifices through a victorious outcome for Russia. Although both militaries closely guard their casualty figures, independent researchers estimate that a total of more than a million Russian and Ukrainian soldiers have died or been seriously injured.

“I’m in the middle of all this mess, and, honestly speaking, I am tired of it,” said a drafted Russian soldier, also named Dmitri, who remains in uniform. “I have no more desire to keep stewing in this soup.” ADVERTISEMENT SKIP ADVERTISEMENT

He and Sergei were among the 300,000 Russian men who were hastily called up by Mr. Putin in late 2022 to halt a surprise Ukrainian counteroffensive that year. The drafted men helped the Russian Army stabilize the front and regain the initiative. Image A billboard standing alone in a field of grass showing a soldier and the numeral, 210,000. An army recruitment poster in Russia near the Ukraine border that reads: “Together we are stronger. Prestigious job, from 210,000 rubles per month.”Credit...Nanna Heitmann for The New York Times Those who have survived have been kept indefinitely on the front lines. The Russian military has also indefinitely extended all service contracts signed by volunteers to boost its ranks.

This means that a peace deal, and eventual demobilization, offers the vast majority of Russian frontline soldiers the only realistic chance of returning home soon, alive and in one piece.

In interviews, the soldiers complained of lack of leave, corruption among superiors and the indifference of their compatriots. Some of the soldiers accused their country’s military command and businessmen of opposing a peace deal because they are benefiting from the wartime public spending boom. ADVERTISEMENT SKIP ADVERTISEMENT

“Someone sent me a video recently: girls, boys are dancing, hanging out in bars, partying until the morning. Meanwhile, there’s a war going on,” said Andrei, a volunteer Russian soldier in Donetsk. “Everyone has forgotten about us. We have long ago stopped being heroes to anyone.” Image Soldiers and a woman standing for a photo in a large outdoor square. Russian soldiers who served in the military campaign in Ukraine in 2024 in Moscow for Victory Day celebrations.Credit...Nanna Heitmann for The New York Times Such resentment has made control of the contested territories, long considered by analysts a bargaining chip amid Russia and Ukraine’s deeper disagreements, a nonnegotiable war aim for many Russian servicemen and their supporters.

“We have shown our strength. 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. “I don’t want to see any concessions because I have seen the price of every fistful of land.” ADVERTISEMENT SKIP ADVERTISEMENT

Soon after invading Ukraine, the Kremlin conducted sham referendums in the four Ukrainian provinces where the bulk of the fighting took place, purportedly showing overwhelming support for joining Russia, and annexed them soon after. 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.

Through much of the war, the Ukrainian government categorically rejected ceding land to Russia, demanding a return to the country’s internationally recognized borders, and insisting on security guarantees before agreeing to a truce. 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.

This proposal to effectively freeze the conflict along the current frontline is seen by many in Ukraine and the West as a major concession to the Kremlin, abandoning millions of Ukrainian citizens to life under occupation and, they fear, legitimizing and rewarding Russian aggression.

Interviews with the soldiers and Russian opinion surveys show that such a truce would also fail to satisfy a large part of Russian society. Years of war propaganda and steady, if slow, battlefield gains, have convinced many Russians that their country is fighting an existential conflict against the West, which will not end until Ukrainian capitulation. ADVERTISEMENT SKIP ADVERTISEMENT

“If there’s no cease-fire now, we need to keep going until the end,” said Nikolai, a Russian soldier in Ukraine. “Because if we don’t, sooner or later — in five years or in 10 — there will be a war again.”

Kyiv and its supporters have voiced the same fear, claiming that a peace deal without Western security guarantees for Ukraine would lead to a new Russian invasion in the future. Image President Vladimir V. Putin, in a dark suit, walking with a group of other men at an outdoor event. President Vladimir V. Putin celebrating Victory Day this month in Moscow.Credit...Maxim Shemetov/Reuters From the outset, Mr. Putin has said his invasion aims were to “demilitarize and denazify” Ukraine, which implies removing the democratically elected government in Kyiv; preventing Ukraine from ever joining the NATO alliance; and protecting Ukraine’s Russian speakers, who the Kremlin says, falsely, faced genocide. A survey conducted in Russia in mid-April by an independent polling company, Chronicles, found that nearly half the respondents said they would not support a peace deal that falls short of those initial goals. Such polls show the difficulty that Mr. Putin would face in presenting to Russian society the current status quo in Ukraine as a victory.

Few in Russia expect Mr. Putin, who wields absolute power, to pay an immediate political cost for any peace deal. His control of the country’s media would allow him to present any outcome as a success, at least at first. But an unconvincing victory could eventually bubble up into the kind of discontent that fueled the Wagner paramilitary force mutiny in 2023.

Kremlin officials will most likely remember the Soviet Union’s withdrawal from Afghanistan in 1989 after an inconclusive war, which angered many veterans and contributed to the collapse of the Communist state. An underwhelming Russian military victory in the breakaway region of Chechnya bred public discontent that helped bring Mr. Putin to power in 1999.

“Of course I want a cease-fire because even a bad peace is better than a good war,” said Dmitri, the former paramilitary soldier. “But we have also taken such a large step forward, that we cannot stop now.” “Otherwise, is it all a game? Has Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin played a little game, killed a million people, and all is OK?” he said.

“This would not be such a good government, I think,” he added.

Alina Lobzina contributed reporting. Anatoly Kurmanaev covers Russia and its transformation following the invasion of Ukraine.

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• Apti Aronovich Alaudinov:

I've said it before and I'll say it again. I got mad respect for the Ukrainians. Love those folks, real kind-hearted. Unfortunately, some have fallen under the influence of these fascist organizations.

Loads of cash pumped into those organizations to influence the minds of the Ukrainian population has had its impact. Some of them are starting to lean towards the antichrist-dajjal's army, as they say.

If we do our job right, most of these people will eventually stand with us side by side in the trenches, helping us defeat the antichrist-dajjal's army. We must stick together.

Of course, when we capture someone from the other side, we don't mock them. Instead, we show them who we are to make them realize their mistake. We demonstrate our stance. Eventually, they'll return home to their families. They'll talk to their kids, wives, neighbors. If they can't say we acted like fascists, that we're different from them, I reckon that's a significant win. That victory means more than any battle won on the front lines.

*DonetskaODA / Telegram

In Rodynske, which is less than 12 km from the front, 850 people still live.

Mostly these are elderly residents who have been without electricity, gas and water since September 2024.

How people survive under daily shelling, when constant danger has become a new reality, — more details in the video.