You're reading: Majority of Ukrainians call current Ukrainian-Russian relations war

The majority of Ukrainians assess the current relations between Ukraine and Russia as a war, according to a poll by the Rating sociological group.

“When answering the question ‘How would you assess current relations
between Ukraine and Russia?’ the majority (57 percent) says it’s a war, one in
five (19 percent) – a political conflict, 8 percent say it’s a temporary
misunderstanding, 6 percent – an economical conflict, 1 percent – another answer and
9 percent haven’t decided,” reads the press release of the sociological group
sent to Interfax-Ukraine on Julu 21.

According to the poll, people from all the Ukrainian regions except
for those from Donbas and Kharkiv assess the state of Ukrainian-Russian
relations as a war.

However, 58 percent of the respondents believe that Russian special services
are behind the military confrontation in eastern Ukraine. A total of
49 percent believe that former President Viktor Yanukovych’s confidants are
involved in it; 28 percent of the respondents think that the Party pf Regions
is responsible; 24 percent blame local oligarchs, and 17 percent believe that local
people who oppose the new government are responsible. A total of 15 percent
blame radical nationalist organizations, 11 percent – Western special services,
6 percent – the Ukrainian special services, 4 percent support other answers and 11 percent
haven’t decided.

“[People] in Donbas have started blaming Russian special services and
radical nationalist organizations more. Here and in the south, the
number of supporters of the idea that local oligarchs and Western
special services are involved in the confrontation in eastern Ukraine
has grown,” reads the poll.

The poll was conducted from June 28 until July 10. A total of 4,000
respondents of different age and gender, from various regions and types
of populated areas were surveyed by a personal interview. The poll’s
margin of over doesn’t exceed 1.5 percent.