In a poll conducted for the International Institute of Sociology in Kyiv, 32 percent of respondents say they can accept Ukraine giving up some land in order to achieve peace. In comparison, only 10 percent thought the same in a similar survey a year ago, while the figure rose to 19 percent earlier this year.
But 55 percent of those polled are still completely against any territorial concessions to Russia.
29 months after the Russian invasion, Russian forces today hold around 18 percent of Ukraine’s territory, including the Crimean peninsula. Ukrainian forces are currently on the defensive after a counteroffensive last year failed.
The survey did not ask how large areas of land people were willing to give up, nor which. The fact that someone is willing to give up territory does not necessarily mean that they would recognize such areas as Russian.
– For example, some would be willing to postpone the release of certain land areas until a later and better opportunity, says the institute in comments to the survey.
In 2022, Russia annexed the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhya, although it does not have full control over them. Crimea, on the other hand, was already annexed in 2014.
In a comment, the director of the institute, Anton Khrushchev, says that the Ukrainians are still against an unconditional peace agreement with Russia.
1,067 people in the Ukrainian-controlled parts of Ukraine were asked in the poll.
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2024-07-26 05:01:58
