As Russian President Vladimir Putin explores a potential peace settlement to end the war in Ukraine, hawkish anti-Western nationalists at home are waging a campaign to keep the conflict going.

¡°We surrender our weapons, we surrender our country!¡± Pavel Gubarev, a pro-Moscow activist in part of Ukraine¡¯s eastern Donetsk region controlled by Moscow, posted on Sunday, raging against the prospect of the conflict being ¡°frozen¡± along current lines.

To someone brought up in the West, it might look at first sight as if Putin is under pressure.