A relative majority of Ukranians support the country’s accession to NATO, according to the results of the ‘Ukraine in Focus’ survey conducted by the Rating sociological group from May 22 to May 31.
If a referendum on Ukraine’s accession to NATO was held today, 43 percent of respondents would now vote to join. Some 30 percent were against, 13 percent wouldn’t vote at all and 14 percent said they haven’t made their minds up.
Every tenth respondent who expressed distrust towards NATO as an organization said they would still vote to accede.
Younger people and inhabitants of Ukraine’s western regions most supported Ukraine’s NATO accession.
According to results of the poll, half of those questioned said Ukraine should become a member of the EU. Some 12 percent favored joining the Customs Union, and 28 percent supported a multi-vector EU/Russia foreign policy. Every tenth respondent said he did not know.
EU accession is supported in the western regions of Ukraine and by youth. Among those who expressed distrust towards EU countries, 15 percent supported EU accession, 30 percent accession to the Customs Union and 45 percent were noncommittal.
For 40 percent of those surveyed visa-free status with the EU was important. Some 55 percent said it was not important and 7 percent said they weren’t sure. The responses were similar to those given to the same question in 2016. Visa-free EU travel is more important to Ukraine’s western regions and to youth. Pensioners are less concerned with the issue.
Of the governments and international organizations most trusted by Ukrainians, respondents said Belarus (60 percent), the EU and Canada (56 percent) and UN (48 percent). Russia was the least trusted country (73 percent). Trust in Canada and the EU was more pronounced in central and western Ukraine. The same is true for NATO, the U.S., the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and the IMF. Trust in Belarus, the Commonwealth of Independent States, China and Russia was most pronounced in Ukraine’s southern and eastern regions.
Some 3,000 people, aged 18 and older, were questioned face-to-face in the survey. The respondent pool was representative according to age, region and type of residence. The margin of error of the poll was estimated at 1.8 percent.
