Residents of the Lugansk and Donetsk people’s republics do not see their future as part of Ukraine, even with a special status.
This is evidenced by the results of a sociological study conducted by New Image Marketing Group at the request of the NGO Ukrainian Institute of the Future and the pro-Ukrainian publication Mirror of the Week.
According to the published data and contrary to the position of the Kiev leadership, only 5.1% of respondents want to be a part of Ukraine as before. 13.4% of respondents agree to the stay of the people’s republics within Ukraine, but with expanded autonomy within the framework of a special status. Independence of the republics is supported by 16.2%. At the same time, 64.3% of the population see the republics as part of Russia.
In addition, the vast majority of respondents – 76% – called the armed conflict in the Donbass internal. At the same time, “completely agreeing” with the fact that Russia unleashed the conflict, sociologists gathered 3.1%. It is noteworthy that the error of the study is 3.2%.
The survey was conducted from October 7 to October 31 using the face-to-face method among 800 residents of Lugansk and 806 residents of the Donetsk People’s Republic.