LVIV, Ukraine — Only about a third of Ukrainians think the Ukrainian army is now strong enough to go on the offensive, a poll taken by the FAMA research agency shows.
Some 32 percent of the those polled said they thought the army was still too weak, agency director Maryana Malachivska-Danchak said at the Lviv Security Forum on Dec.1.
The company presented on the sidelines of the forum its latest national survey “This is war” dedicated to the armed forces, the nation’s attitude towards the occupied Crimea Peninsula and the ongoing war in the Donbas. FAMA said it had interviewed 2,500 adult Ukrainians throughout the country between August and September.
About 60 percent of Ukrainians think that the army still needs financial aid from civilian volunteers, the poll results also show. Ukraine has boosted spending on defense every year since Russia launched its war in the Donbas, with the figure reaching a record high of Hr 129 billion ($4.8 billion), or some 6 percent of the country’s GDP in 2017, with some Hr 64 billion ($2.3 billion) allocated to the ministry of defense.
Concerning the problems of today’s army, Ukrainians are most worried about corruption (56.8 percent), low-quality equipment (38.4 percent), lack of combat experience (36.5 percent), alcohol and drugs addiction (34.3 percent), bureaucracy (32.6 percent), lack of medical care for the wounded (31.9 percent) and a lack of appropriate medical support (30.4 percent).
However, many of those polled said that in comparison with 2015, the situation in the army has improved somewhat. Almost 40 percent of Ukrainians now assessed food and equipment supplies to the armed forces to be “good” compared to 2015, while 37 percent are happy with the army’s level of provision with weapons and technical support. Some 36 percent believe that servicemen are now well paid.
Nevertheless, only 16.8 percent of those polled said they strongly believed the army was totally ready to resist foreign aggression. Besides the somewhat conflicting view on the progress in the army, most Ukrainians strongly support restoring the country’s sovereignty within it pre-war borders of 2013. Presenting the poll, Malachivska-Danchak said 68.8 of Ukrainians want Russian-occupied Crimea to come back under Ukrainian control, and the even bigger majority – 75 percent – support restoring sovereignty over all of the Donbas.
However, when it comes to how to achieve that, only 24.7 percent of those polled said they would favor regaining the occupied territories in the east via a full military offensive. More Ukrainians would support maintaining a strong defensive strategy (36.9 percent), while others support fulfilling the Minsk agreements and providing Donbas with a special status within Ukraine (22 percent), or isolating those territories and officially declaring them occupied by Russia (21.1 percent).
