Russia is losing
Russia has been losing since the day it started the invasion. Even if it had succesfully overrun Ukraine like it hoped, the damage from the sanctions and the costs of occupation would have offset any benefit it could have gained from the occupataion. The best it could hope for was a Pyrrhic victory, that allowed Putin to feel good about redrawing Russia's borders while leaving the next generation suffer the consequences.
Now Russia sinks more and more of its' ressources into the war without even that small prospect of consolidation. 350bn€ in financial reserves frozen and likely gone forever. More than 200k Russians have been killed or injured. Russia is forced to spend more and more of its' state budget for the war despite declining fossil revenues which means the decay of its' infrastructure will only accelerate. It suffers one geopolitical blow after another, from Finland joining NATO to Kazakhstan and other countries trying to leave its' orbit. Its' long nurtured soft-power in the West is completely gone. Its' imminent demographic decline is shaping up to be more like a collapse due to the war.
Lets' assume that Ukraine would soon be forced to negotiate and accept the loss of all of its' currently occuppied territory. Would any rational person really believe that what Russia has effectively gained since February 2022 (mostly depopulated and heavily destroyed territory that was poor to begin with) would outweigh the losses?
It might be enough for Putin to save face, but the bill will have to be paid by the Russians.
Is there any doubt what the people
Of course not. They want to be part of Ukraine and wait for their liberation if we go by established democratic elections.
It is up to Russia to prove the opposite with fair and free democratic elections which it has so far failed to do (and given the nature of the Russian regime, will never do).