But popular support is. If you had no support from population, you would have harder time with waging war or defending. When your opponent has better propaganda

But popular support is. If you had no support from population, you would have harder time with waging war or defending. When your opponent has better propaganda and is able to spread it in your population, your population is slowing you down. We currently have better quality propaganda, and can spread it easily thanks to the internet. Russians can spread their propaganda but have worse quality, so they don't have support in west. We can't spread our propaganda easily in Russia, so Russians believe in their side. Those Russians who saw both sides mostly left Russia.