A recent poll found that 49 percent of people would back withdrawing without achieving the Kremlin's military objectives.

Western governments and Russia's exiled opposition should begin laying the groundwork for Russia's democratic transition after President Vladimir Putin eventually leaves office, Vladimir Kara-Murza, a Russian opposition politician,

Vladimir Putin cannot win the war in Ukraine because his defeat is the only chance to build a new, democratic Russia. The Russian opposition and the West cannot waste this opportunity again as they did in the '90s,