You're reading: Most Ukrainians do not want peace in Donbas ‘at any cost’

Voters of none of the political parties in Ukraine support peace in Donbas at any cost, as is seen from a public opinion poll conducted by the Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Foundation and the Razumkov Center sociological service.

“Voters of none of the political parties support peace at any cost. This idea is least of all popular among the voters of the Holos (10 percent) and European Solidarity (7 percent) parties, and the highest share of those supporting it is among the Opposition Platform – For Life party voters (36.5 percent). But even voters of this party chiefly believe that only certain compromises are possible for peace, not all of them,” Iryna Bekeshkina of the Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Foundation said during the presentation of the poll findings in Kyiv on Monday.

The survey found that 48.8 percent of Ukrainians believe that Kyiv should agree to some compromises with Russia and the leaders of the self-proclaimed “Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics” (“DPR” and “LPR”) if this helps achieve peace; particularly, 20.1 percent of those polled believe any compromises with anyone are acceptable for peace, 17.4 percent share the view the peace in Donbas can be established only from the position of strength, when one of the sides wins, and 13.7 percent were undecided.

A majority of the respondents see most of possible compromises under consideration in line with the Minsk agreements as unacceptable, the poll showed.

The least acceptable of these terms (for respondents in all regions of Ukraine) include: the organization of elections on “DPR/LPR” terms (unacceptable to 66 percent, acceptable to 13 percent of those polled), absolute amnesty for all who fought against the Ukrainian government forces (unacceptable to 61 percent, acceptable to 1 percent), and the formation of security agencies in the “DPR” and “LPR” solely of local representatives (unacceptable to 58 percent, acceptable to 18 percent).

The terms mostly unacceptable to Ukrainians also include constitutional amendments granting the Russian language official status (unacceptable to 54 percent, acceptable to 30 percent), consent to special political and economic relations between the temporarily uncontrolled territories and Russia (unacceptable to 53 percent, acceptable to 23 percent), and the adoption of legislation on Ukraine’s neutral and non-aligned status (unacceptable to 48 percent, acceptable to 29 percent).

The poll of 2,017 respondents was conducted in all regions of Ukraine aged 18 and older from June 13 to 20, 2019.

The margin of error does not exceed 2.3 percent.