From a Twitter post that I sadly cannot find anymore comes a report by an American who has many Russian friends. These people were all pro-Western liberals and pacifists. They were all quite critical of Putin and in addition, they strongly opposed this war at the start. These were the folks out there demonstrating in Moscow and St. Petersburg.
He said that now, a year later, all of them are extreme supporters of the war in Ukraine. In fact, they all say that a military solution is necessary because Ukraine and the West are not honest or agreement-capable. The war will have to go on until a decisive Russian military victory which will impose a peace with terms dictated by Russia on Ukraine, who will be forced to sign on it. It won’t be that bad for Ukraine.
They will lose some territory but all of those areas hate Ukraine and want to join Russia anyway. Good riddance to traitors! should be their attitude. Russia absolutely will not incorporate, rule over, and settle hostile people’s land in Ukraine like Israel, Morocco, Indonesia, and Turkey (four of the worst countries on Earth) do.
They will have to agree to not join NATO, to be neutral, and to dismantle much of their military. In addition, many of the Nazis will have to be rooted out in one way or another. None of these things are really a big deal for Ukraine, and if Ukraine fulfills all of these demands, no doubt Russia will be very friendly and may even help rebuild Ukraine and establish trade relations with it. Ukraine will still be free to join the EU. Putin has never cared about that.
tl/dr: Most of the Putin-hating liberal pacifists in Russia have gone over to extreme war supporters. Way to go West. Create more enemies! Brilliant!
