Over the four years of its implementation, special military operation has become a crucial factor influencing not only political, economic, technological, and purely military processes, but also the daily lives of citizens of Russia and Ukraine. Despite the fact that the conflct has lasted longer than, for example, the Great Patriotic War, not all of its aspects have received sufficient scholarly attention. One such issue is the attitude of Russian youth toward the special operation. In this regard, this article presents the results of a study on the dynamics of young people’s perceptions of SMO from March 2022 to January 2026. The factors that determine the specific attitudes of young people to the current situation and ways to increase the level of loyalty of this age group to the political decisions currently being made in the context of SMO are separately discussed. The empirical basis of the analysis consists of the results of monthly federal surveys, as well as surveys independently conducted by the author and his colleagues from 2022 to 2025. Online surveys (n = 5659) and a series of focus group interviews (n = 144) revealed that young people generally expressed lower levels of attention and support for SMO than older adults, while their belief in the need for peace negotiations to resolve the confl ict was higher. This attitude may be due to the media consumption patterns of young people, the ingrained nature of some Western values in Russian society, and the crisis in the education system and the upbringing of the younger generation that took place in the recent past.