the ukrainians reject in 90% any territorial transfer to end the war, according to polls that indicate that patriotic pride and grief for the victims dominate among those consulted a year and a half after the start of the large-scale Russian invasion.
A poll conducted in August by the Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Foundation and the Razumbkov Center reveals that 90.4% of those consulted oppose an eventual truce with Russia that includes ceding part of the territories currently occupied by the invading state. Only 4.7% would accept it.
More Ukrainians are in favor of other concessionssuch as leaving aside a NATO membership or reducing the size of its Army, but support for those hypotheses still falls below a fifth of the population, according to the poll.
Its result shows a clear response to those who “try to impose the idea that the Ukrainians should give up something to end the suffering and the war,” according to Sergui Shapovalov, an analyst at Democratic Initiativesat the survey’s presentation in Kyiv.
Ukrainian military analyst Mykola Bielieskov, for his part, believes that this will to keep up the fight is a crucial factor that will ensure the long-term support of the invaded country’s foreign partners, even if the current counter-offensive doesn’t show much progress soon.
“If they publicly said that they would not support us, the moral authority would be undermined. and Western strategy,” Bielieskov said in an interview with the Ukrainian outlet ‘Euromaidan Press’.
Less than half of Ukrainians, 46.3% believe in the stability of international support even if there are no significant advances in the counteroffensive for the next 3 or 4 months.
31.5% of those consulted suspect that this support could be “substantially reduced”while 22% are not sure.
In case Russia increases its missile attacks on Ukrainian cities and kills more civilians 23% would support starting negotiations with Russia to end the war while 41.5% would support continuing it and almost 21% would prefer to “freeze” the conflict, but without concessions to the Russians.
Despite the fact that the war continues, more Ukrainians (49%) than believe their country is heading in the positive direction than those who think things are getting worse (32%). EFE
