36% of Ukrainians agree to transfer the entire Donetsk region to Russian control in exchange for Western security guarantees - survey

36% of Ukrainians agree to the withdrawal of troops from the entire Donetsk region in exchange for security guarantees from the United States and Europe, according to the results of a survey by the Kiev International Institute of Sociology (KIIS).

At the same time, the majority (29%) of those who agree to this option admit that this is a difficult condition. 57% of respondents consider it categorically unacceptable to transfer the entire Donetsk region to Russian control in exchange for security guarantees. 7% could not decide.

KIIS emphasizes that compared to the beginning of March, there are slightly fewer of those who are categorically against it (at the beginning of March there were 62%). The share of those who agreed at the beginning of March was 33%.

The latest survey (conducted at the end of April) returned to the level of February, when similar figures were recorded.

The institute added that over the past few months, public opinion on this issue has not changed significantly; the majority of Ukrainians are critical of such an initiative.

“ At the same time, let us recall that our experiment in mid-February showed that if security guarantees from the United States are specified and explicitly stated that they will not include the deployment of their troops in Ukraine, the closure of the skies and the free provision of weapons, then support for the proposal will be significantly lower ,” the authors of the survey add.

The survey was conducted April 20-27 through telephone interviews (computer-assisted telephone interviews, CATI). The survey involved 1,005 respondents in all regions of Ukraine that are controlled by the government in Kyiv.

Previously, the President of Ukraine has repeatedly stated that Kiev categorically rejects Russia’s demand for the withdrawal of Ukrainian units from the entire territory of Donbass as a condition for the cessation of hostilities.

At the same time, Western media reported that US President Donald Trump also made this demand.

The Kremlin says that Moscow does not intend to give up its territorial claims, agreements on which were allegedly reached during Putin’s meeting with Trump in Anchorage, Canada.