Most Ukrainians are not ready to give up Crimea and Donbas. Survey

Mykhailo Zagorodniy

86% of Ukrainians believe that Ukraine should use all opportunities to effect the return of the occupied territories of Donbas. 80% are in favour of Crimea being returned.

This is evidenced by a survey conducted by the sociological group "Rating" on March 12-13.

Support for the return of Donbas and Crimea is expressed by residents of all regions of Ukraine. This support has increased significantly since Russia's attack on Ukraine on February 24.

In particular, in 2020, 73% of Ukrainians supported the return of the occupied territories of Donbas in all possible ways. In the case of Crimea, support has increased even more – in 2020, only 68% supported the return of the peninsula.

The return of the occupied Ukrainian territories is traditionally more strongly supported by young people aged 18-35: Donbas – 88% and Crimea – 82%. However, there is no strong gap with other age categories of respondents, for example, among Ukrainians aged 51+, these figures are 83% and 79%, respectively.

According to the survey, the majority of respondents – 56% – believe that Russia is trying to exterminate the Ukrainian nation.

Audience: the population of Ukraine aged 18 and older in all oblasts, except for the temporarily occupied territories of Crimea and Donbas. The sample is representative by age, sex and type of settlement.

Sample population: 1200 respondents. Survey method: CATI (Computer Assisted Telephone Interviews). Error of representativeness of the study with a confidence level of 0.95: not more than 2.8%.