Russia's war against Ukraine's eastern Donbas region still tops the list of Ukrainians’ concerns, beating out corruption and unemployment by a wide margin, a new poll indicates.
Overall, 60 percent of Ukrainians (and 50 percent in the government-controlled parts of Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts) said the conflict with Russia was the most important problem facing Ukraine, sociology company Rating Group found in its poll.
Rating Group polled 1,800 people over the age of 18 all over Ukraine from Nov. 19 to Nov. 30, 2015 on behalf of the International Republican Institute. The study was funded by the Canadian government.
The poll did not question residents in the Russian-occupied Ukrainian territory of Crimea or the parts of Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts where Russian-backed armed groups have seized control, but over two-thirds of those polled were residents of government-controlled parts of Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts.
Next highest after the war on the list of citizens’ concerns were corruption in the government (34 percent and 27 percent) and unemployment (34 percent and 27 percent). According to the poll, 86 percent of Ukrainians (and 50 percent of residents of government-controlled Donbas) support Ukraine remaining a unitary state.
The issue of the status of the Russian language, one of the justifications Russia has given for its intervention in Ukraine, was a concern to only 1 percent of those polled in the Donbas, and less than 1 percent of those polled nationwide. When asked if Russian-speaking citizens of Ukraine are under pressure or threat because of their language (a question only asked in the Donbas sample), only 2 percent said “definitely yes,” while 54 percent said “definitely no.”
Russia’s covert war on Ukraine in the east has boosted Ukrainians’ support for joining the NATO defense alliance, the poll also found. However, support for joining NATO is much higher in the west of Ukraine.
There, 78 percent of those polled said they would vote to join the alliance, with only 9 percent against. In central Ukraine, 55 percent were for joining NATO, while 17 percent were against.
In the south and east of the country support for joining NATO was significantly lower, with 37 percent for and 11 percent against in the south, and 15 percent for, 15 percent against in the east. In the Donbas, 49 percent said they would not take part in a referendum on Ukraine joining NATO, while 21 percent did not know which way they would vote.
Nationwide, support for joining NATO is at 48 percent, with 30 percent against. In March 2014 support for joining NATO was at 34 percent, with 43 percent against.
Ukrainians’ support for joining the European Union is also on the rise, according to the poll. Nationwide, 57 percent said they would favor joining the EU over Russia’s alternative, the Customs Union, which only 15 percent said they wanted Ukraine to join. In September 2012 some 32 percent of Ukrainians said they wanted to join the EU, with 42 percent saying they favored the Customs Union.
But perhaps disturbingly, Ukrainians’ desires to join NATO and the EU don’t seem to be in synch with their attitudes to democracy, the poll also found.
Asked which they would prefer if they could only have one or the other – a democratic country or a prosperous economy – only 36 percent said they favored democracy, compared to 50 percent who preferred prosperity.
The poll’s margin of error does not exceed plus or minus 2.3 percent. Its response rate was 65.9 percent.
Kyiv Post intern Olena Astakhova can be reached at [email protected]
