Share of Ukrainians who say that the only acceptable condition for peace is unconditional Russia’s surrender falls to third – poll
The share of Ukrainians who say that the only acceptable condition for concluding peace with the Russian Federation is the complete and unconditional capitulation of the aggressor country, and its payment of compensation and reparations for the damage caused in full, has decreased from 42% in 2023 to 32% in 2024.
This is stated in the results of the study "Ukrainians in Wartime: Pride, Remembrance, Victory," conducted by the Institute of Social and Political Psychology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine in cooperation with the Association of Political Psychologists of Ukraine and presented at a press conference at the Interfax-Ukraine agency on Friday.
At the same time, the share of supporters of more compromise peace options has increased: a return to the 1991 state borders, including Donbas and Crimea (from 25.1% in 2023 to 27.3% in 2024); a ceasefire and the withdrawal of troops from both sides from the line of contact (from 10.9% to 14.6%); the return of territories occupied after February 24, 2022, to Ukrainian control (from 9.2% to 11.5%); turning the current line of contact into a state border with the aggressor country, if this opens the way for Ukraine to join NATO and the EU (from 2.9 to 4.8%).
The smallest share of supporters of the maximalist vision of the future peace is among residents of the eastern (25.9%) and southern (20.7%) regions of Ukraine. A return to the state borders of 1991, including Donbas and Crimea, as an acceptable condition for peace is supported by 39.3% of residents of the east and only 19.6% of residents of the west of Ukraine.
It is noted that now only 54.1% of respondents blame the Russian authorities led by Vladimir Putin for the start of a full-scale invasion of Russian troops into Ukraine, while in February 2023 there were 72%. The current Ukrainian authorities are blamed by 2.6%, Ukrainian government officials of all years of independence - 5.7%, the USA, EU and NATO - 3.2%. At the same time, almost a quarter (24.1%) believe that all of them together are to blame for the start of a full-scale war in Ukraine, which is significantly more than in 2023 (13.7%).
There are no significant regional differences on this issue, except that among residents of the central regions, the proportion of those who consider the Russian authorities to be the main culprit of the war unleashed is less than half – 48.7%.
The survey was conducted on September 17–28 using face-to-face interviews with 1,157 adult respondents in all regions controlled by Ukraine. The sampling error is 3.2%.