More Ukrainians now see NATO, the Western military alliance, as a threat than as a source of protection, according to a new study by U.S. polling company Gallup.
The results of the poll published on Feb. 10 show that 35 percent of Ukrainians saw NATO as a threat, while 29 percent of Ukrainians saw the alliance as a source of protection for the country.
Support in Ukraine for NATO, and for joining the alliance, had been increasing in recent years.
Suggesting an explanation for the results, Gallup said the Ukrainian population was growing “tired of the ongoing conflict between its military and Russian-backed separatists, as well as a poor economy and rising crime rates.”
“Without a clear end in sight to the conflict, Ukrainians may be losing confidence in NATO’s ability to help them in this crisis,” Gallup said.
According to the study, in 2014, after countries belonging to NATO sanctioned Russia for invading and annexing the Ukrainian territory of Crimea, Ukrainians for the first time were more likely to see NATO as a source of protection (36 percent) than a threat (20 percent).
The latest research results undermine a claim made by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in an interview with German newspaper Berliner Morgenpost on Feb. 2, during which he said that up to 54 percent of Ukrainians support NATO. He also said that he would call a referendum on the matter in Ukraine, and “when people vote in favor, I will do everything possible (for Ukraine) to achieve membership of the Atlantic alliance.”
During a joint press appearance in Brussels on Feb. 9 between Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman and NATO Deputy Secretary General Rose Gottemoeller, Gottemoeller said that NATO would stand by Ukraine.
“NATO does not, and will not, recognize the illegal annexation of Crimea, and we condemn Russia’s continuing destabilization of eastern Ukraine,” she said.
Earlier Poroshenko set 2020 as a deadline for Ukraine’s armed forces to achieve NATO standards, which would allow it to apply to join. But even if that goal is achieved, experts say because of the ongoing war in eastern Ukraine with Russian-led forces, actual membership of the alliance is likely to prove elusive.
Currently, there is no consensus among NATO members on whether Ukraine should be able to join.
The Gallup poll was based on telephone interviews conducted throughout 2016 in countries included in the analysis, with a random sample of approximately 1,000 adults, aged 15 and older, living in each country. Gallup said the confidence level of the results is 95 percent, with the sampling error ranging from plus/minus 2.7 percent to 3.9 percent.
