Ukrainians Overwhelmingly Support Their Army and Zelensky, Expect to Defeat Russia, but Want More Help from West, Five New Polls Show

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Mar. 10 – Viktor Belyayev of the independent Belarusian portal, ThinkTanks.by, has assembled the results of five new polls from Ukraine which show that the Ukrainian people overwhelmingly support their army and government and remain confident of their ultimate victory over the Russian invasion.

            At the same time, however, these polls highlight the fact that Ukrainians hope for more support from the West including the possible establishment of a no-fly zone over their country, something that as of now Western countries have not been prepared to do (thinktanks.by/publication/2022/03/10/s-veroy-v-armiyu-i-pobedu-ukraina-v-zerkale-sotsoprosov.html).

            The first, survey, conducted March 3-4 by the InfoSapiens agency found that 79 percent of Ukrainians are against Moscow’s recognition of the independence of occupied regions in the Donbass, 75 percent oppose official recognition of Crimea as part of Russia, and 56 percent are against a ban on Ukraine becoming a member of NATO.

            The same survey also found that 67 percent of Ukrainians were prepared to personally resist the Russian invasion, with 78 percent of Ukrainian men and 59 percent of Ukrainian women telling the sociologists that they were committed to that position.

            A second poll, by the Social Monitoring Center jointly with the Institute for Cognitive Modeling and the First Rating System Agency and conducted March 4-6, found that more than 80 percent of Ukrainians are prepared to make sacrifices to resist the Russian invasion and to do so for a long time to come.

            A third survey, carried out March 8-9 by the Rating Sociological Group found that nearly half of Ukrainians are satisfied with the humanitarian aid Ukraine has been getting but far more are upset that the West has not provided more military assistance, concluding that Western countries aren’t prepared to stand up to Moscow.

            But Ukrainians have not given up on convincing the West to do more: Ninety percent say that Ukraine must continue to press NATO to use its resources to close the skies over Ukraine so that Ukrainian forces can defeat the Russian invaders and occupiers.

            A fourth poll, also by Rating but carried out February 26-27, found a significant increase in Ukrainian faith in their own military. Seventy percent say the Ukrainian army will defeat the Russian invaders, and 91 percent support Volodmyr Zelensky as president and supreme commander, twice the level of backing he had at the end of 2021.

            Significantly, this poll found that optimism about the future dominated Ukrainians’ thinking regardless of region, with those in the eastern portions of the country almost as high as those in the west.

            And a fifth survey, by the European Business Association, found that businessmen in Ukraine look to the future with more confidence than one might expect. Only one percent plan to shutter their establishments. The rest plan to carry on despite the invasion and the dangers it presents to them.