RUSSIALINK: “Some 70% of Ukrainians approve possible compromises with Russia, DPR, LPR for sake of peace – poll” – Interfax
KYIV. Feb 13 (Interfax) – Seventy-two percent of Ukrainians believe that there is a war between Ukraine and Russia, while 15% disagree, according to a nationwide opinion poll conducted by the Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Foundation and the Razumkov Center and a regional survey conducted in the districts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions controlled by Kyiv.
Thirty-nine percent of residents of the Donbas areas controlled by Kyiv believe that a Ukrainian-Russian war is underway, while 40% disagree. A fifth of residents of the country as a whole and in that region were undecided.
About 70% of Ukrainian citizens believe that the authorities should seek compromise with Russia and the self-proclaimed Luhansk and Donetsk People’s Republics (LPR and DPR) for the sake of peace in Donbas, while only 16% would support any compromise. Seventeen percent of Ukrainians back the use of force to settle the crisis.
Many more Donbas residents (46%) would agree to any compromise for the sake of peace, while the number of local residents who support the use of force in resolving the crisis is lower (10%).
Ukrainian citizens generally consider the majority of possible compromises currently being discussed in public and envisaged under the Minsk Agreements to be unacceptable.
Holding elections on conditions set by the DPR and LPR, granting amnesty to all combatants who fought Ukrainian forces, and staffing DPR and LPR law enforcement agencies exclusively with locals are the least acceptable for Donbas residents and for Ukrainian citizens on the whole.
More acceptable for residents of Donbas and southern and eastern Ukrainian regions are proposals to grant “special status” to the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, make Russian a state language, enact a law on Ukraine’s neutral and non-aligned status, and restore communication lines and trade channels with the territories Kyiv considers to be occupied.
About half of citizens in Ukraine as a whole and in the Donbas areas controlled by Ukraine would prefer to reinstate pre-war conditions in the uncontrolled territories.
About 20% of Ukrainian citizens and 28% of Donbas citizens see these territories as part of Ukraine but as more independent from the central government.