The majority of Ukrainians believe that the end of war in Donetsk and Luhansk regions (67.2%) and around Crimea (64.5%) will depend on the Russian Federation and its position, according to the data of a sociological study conducted by the Kharkiv Institute of Sociological Research in cooperation with Human Rights Center ZMINA from March to April 2021 and presented at the Office of the President of Ukraine.
About a third of the respondents indicate that the conflict must be resolved by Ukraine (35.6% in Donbas and 30.9% in Crimea). Significantly fewer are those who hope for the efforts of European countries (14% for Donbas and 11.7% for Crimea) and the United States (16.8% and 14%, respectively).
The return of Kremlin-controlled parts of Donbas under the control of Ukraine is perceived as a real opportunity by 70.4% of the respondents (23.5% are skeptical). Regarding the prospects for the return of Crimea, 57.5% believe that such a return is possible, and 36.9% believe that Crimea is lost for Ukraine.
Among the most important steps towards restoring peace in Ukraine, respondents indicated the need to develop a national strategy for ending the armed conflict and restoring peace (38%), improving awareness of people in Crimea and Donbas about events in Ukraine (25.6%), creating opportunities for dialogue with ordinary people from Crimea and Donbas (22.7%).
In the opinion of the majority of the respondents (74.4%), the President of Ukraine should become the initiator of the creation of a state action plan for the transition from a state of armed conflict to peace. A much smaller number of respondents expect this from the Cabinet of Ministers (31%) and the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine (34.3%). At the same time, every tenth Ukrainian (10.7%) does not consider it necessary to do something until the armed conflict ends, the same number of respondents (9.4%) do not have an opinion on this matter.
More than half of the respondents (54%) indicate that Ukraine should not make compromises to end the conflict on the territory of the temporarily occupied Donbas.
At the same time, among the possible compromises, the respondents noted: granting autonomy to Donbas within Ukraine (13%); provision of extended economic powers to Donbas within Ukraine (9.2%); granting the Russian language the status of a second state language (8.5%); granting independence to Donbas (5%); amnesty for all who served in illegal armed groups in the occupied Crimea and/or Donbas (4.8%); refusal of Ukraine from NATO membership (4.1%); rejection of the course of European integration of Ukraine (2.8%); recognition of Crimea as the territory of the Russian Federation (2.2%).
The survey was commissioned by the Human Rights for Ukraine project, which is being implemented by the UNDP and funded by the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Methodology used: face-to-face interviews among people over 18 years and older in each region of Ukraine and separately in Kyiv. The sample size is 10,000 respondents. The statistical error with a probability of 0.95 does not exceed 1% for Ukraine as a whole and 5% for each separate region of Ukraine and the city.
