Ukrainians Have No Interest in Trading Land for Peace, New Poll Finds

Paul Goble

            Staunton, July 1 – At a time when some commentators in the West are suggesting that Kyiv should make territorial concessions to Russia in exchange for peace, a new poll conducted by the National Democratic Institute found that few Ukrainians agreed with that and 89 percent say peace will be possible only if Ukraine regains control of all the territory it had before 2014.

            The results of the representative survey were released today by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (kiis.com.ua/?lang=ukr&cat=reports&id=1123&page=1). Other key findings include:

·       73 percent of Ukrainians would like to see Ukraine a member of NATO before 2030, with 65 percent expecting that this will happen.

 ·       90 percent would like to see Ukraine a member of the European Union before 2030 and 87 precent expect that to occur. Those figures, like the ones about NATO membership are up sharply since last December.

 ·       97 percent of Ukrainians trust their country’s Armed Forces, and 85 percent trust President Volodymyr Zelenskyi.