The statement that Ukrainians and Russians are one people is supported by 26% of Ukrainian citizens, 63% believe that they are two different peoples.
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This is evidenced by survey data from the Kyiv Razumkov Center.
55% of ethnic Russians and only 22% of ethnic Ukrainians believe that Ukrainians and Russians are one people (38% and 67%, respectively, consider them two different peoples).
As sociologists note, the Soviet understanding of the brotherhood of the Ukrainian and Russian peoples survived Soviet times and has quite a lot of supporters in modern Ukraine, although under the influence of propaganda in recent years their share has been decreasing.
Thus, if in April 2014 62% of Ukrainian citizens considered Ukrainians and Russians to be fraternal peoples, then in November 2016 – already 51%, and the share of those who do not think so increased from 28% to 34%.
82% of ethnic Russians and 47% of ethnic Ukrainians consider Ukrainians and Russians to be fraternal peoples. The older the respondents, the more often they share this opinion (the share of these grows from 42% in the age group of 18-29 years to 62% among those 60 years and older).
According to a survey by the Razumkov Center, 86% of citizens consider themselves Ukrainians by nationality, 11% consider themselves Russians. 33% of respondents believe that a person’s nationality should be determined by the ethnic origin of their parents (or one of the parents), 25% are of the opinion that national identity is the result of a person’s own choice, self-determination, 14% - that it is determined by the country of permanent residence, 12% - by the language that he considers native, 11% - by the language in which he communicates on a daily basis.
The study was conducted by the sociological service of the Razumkov Center on November 18-23, 2016 in all regions of Ukraine with the exception of uncontrolled territories 2015 among respondents. The theoretical sampling error does not exceed 2,3%.