58% of Ukrainians agree to continue fighting in case of reduction of Western aid to put pressure on Russia - KIIS poll 58%. INFOGRAPHICS
58% of Ukrainians are currently inclined to believe that even in the event of a significant reduction in Western aid, it is still worth continuing hostilities to put pressure on the occupiers, even taking into account the risks to the territories controlled by Ukraine. Every third respondent (32%) believes that it would be better to end the fighting if the West provided serious security guarantees.
This is evidenced by the KIIS survey, Censor.NET reports.
According to the survey, conducted from 29 November to 9 December, 7% of respondents believe that Russia is too strong regardless of Western support, while 6% have not decided on their opinion.
The vast majority of Ukrainians - 87% - believe that if the West properly supports Ukraine with weapons, finance, and sanctions, Ukraine will be able to inflict setbacks on Russia and achieve an acceptable result on the battlefield.
In all regions, the vast majority of the population believes that with proper support from the West, Ukraine can defeat Russia: 79% in the East and 85% in the South (compared to 9% and 10%, respectively, who believe Russia is too strong).
The majority of respondents - 58% - also believe that even if the West's assistance is significantly reduced, the fighting should continue to put pressure on the occupiers, even if it means taking into account the risks to the territories controlled by Ukraine.
At the same time, every third respondent (32%) believes that it is better to agree to a cessation of hostilities with truly serious security guarantees from the West, even if the liberation of the occupied territories is delayed indefinitely. The remaining 10% were undecided.
There are some regional differences when it comes to the question of the strategy of action in the event of a significant reduction in Western aid. In the west and centre of Ukraine, more respondents (64% and 65% respectively) are in favour of continuing the fighting. However, in these regions, a significant proportion (a quarter of the population) also favoured ending the hostilities.
In the south and east of Ukraine, opinions are split roughly in half, with only a slight predominance of opinion in favour of continuing hostilities: in the south, 46%, and in the east, 47% believe that even with limited Western assistance, hostilities should continue. At the same time, 40% and 42% are ready for the fighting to end.
"In this case, the factor of proximity to the front line plays an important role. The south and east are much closer to the active combat zone, which largely leads to higher readiness in the face of limited assistance to end hostilities," KIIS said.
The survey was conducted by computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI) among 1,031 adult respondents from all government-controlled regions of Ukraine. Formally, under normal circumstances, the statistical error of such a sample (with a probability of 0.95 and taking into account the design effect of 1.1) did not exceed 3.4% for indicators close to 50% and 1.5% for indicators close to 5%. In wartime, in addition to this formal error, a certain systematic deviation is added.
