39.2% of Ukrainians polled believe that accepting Russian President Vladimir Putin’s demands not to accept Ukraine into NATO will weaken their country’s security, as it will only fuel the Russian head of state’s aggressiveness towards Ukraine, a survey by the Kiev International Institute of Sociology has shown
At the same time, 29.7 per cent of the respondents believe that the adoption of such a demand will strengthen Ukraine’s security because it will weaken “Putin’s aggressiveness towards Ukraine. 31.1% of the respondents are undecided about their opinion.
49.2% of respondents believe that the threat of “Russian invasion of the territory of Ukraine” is real. However, 41.4% of respondents believe that there will not be an invasion. 57.8% of the respondents consider diplomatic and defence efforts of the Ukrainian authorities to “prevent Russia’s invasion” insufficient, while 27.1% believe the efforts are sufficient.
An absolute majority of the respondents would support Ukraine’s accession to both the EU and NATO if a referendum were held. In the event of a referendum on Ukraine’s NATO membership, 59.2% of all respondents would vote in favor of joining the alliance, while 28.1% would vote against it. In the case of a referendum on EU accession, 67.1 percent of all respondents would vote in favor of the move, while 21.6 percent would vote against it. The rest of the respondents would not vote or are undecided.
Among the residents of the West and the Centre of Ukraine the vast majority support both accession to the EU and accession to NATO. In the south and in the east support for Euro-Atlantic integration is lower. However, in the case of accession to the European Union, the majority of the population of the southern and eastern regions in a referendum would support such a decision, while in the case of accession to NATO the votes “for” and “against” were divided almost equally.
The majority of respondents, 58.1 per cent, believe that negotiations with Putin should only take place with the participation of Western partners. 26.6 per cent of respondents believe that direct talks between Zelensky and Putin are an effective way to achieve peace.
The overwhelming majority of respondents do not believe that direct talks between Zelensky and Putin will lead to the return of Crimea (84.4% do not believe so) and the occupied part of Donbas (66.3%). 10.7% and 25.9% of respondents believe in the possibility of it, respectively.