MOSCOW – About half of Russians believe Russia should provide assistance in this or that form to the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk people’s republics (DPR and LPR) in their conflict with Kyiv, the Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM) said in presenting the findings of a public opinion poll of 1,800 respondents it conducted on July 5-7.
In particular, 9% of Russians believe the self-proclaimed republics should be helped in broadening their autonomy, 25% that their independence should be recognized, and 17% that they should be incorporated into Russia.
Only 3% of those polled propose helping Kyiv regain control over the DPR and LPR, 35% believe Russia should remain neutral, and 11% were undecided.
“The prospect of improvement in relations between Russia, Ukraine, and the West still has no effect on the attitudes of Russians as regards providing assistance to the Donbas militia: over half of those polled (61%) are sure that support should further be rendered,” VCIOM said.
As many as 81% of the respondents believe Russia should continue to send humanitarian convoys to Donbas, while 15% are of the view it should not do so.
Asked which of two approaches meets Russia’s interests more, 80% of the respondents said peace negotiations and the freezing of the conflict benefit Russia more, even if this requires concessions and financial losses. Only 9% favor ‘war till final victory’ to quickly end the conflict, and 11% are undecided.
