The share of “pro-Ukrainian interpretations” on the war in Donbass is falling in society – KIIS
There is no unity among Ukrainian citizens in their understanding of current political events.
This is evidenced by the results of a sociological survey conducted by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology and presented in Kyiv by the deputy director of KIIS Anton Grushetsky, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
Over the past year, the share of those who believe that the separatists and Russia were the first to start the war has decreased from 52% to 48.5%. The share of those who believe that Ukraine started the war increased from 15% in February 2018 to 17%. At the same time, every third (35%) “cannot decide on their opinion” on the question of who first started the war.
Also, over the last year, the share of those who believe that Ukrainian-speaking citizens and patriots are being persecuted in Crimea and the LDPR has decreased from 43% to 38%. On the other hand, from 10% to 15.5% there are more people who believe that ethnic Russians and Russian-speaking citizens are being persecuted in Ukraine.
Regarding the incident in the Kerch Strait, 44% of respondents believe that Russian border guards attacked Ukrainian sailors. But 19% believe that Ukrainian sailors provoked them. Another 37% “undecided on their opinion” on this issue.
At the same time, on the issue of martial law, 51% believe that the declaration of martial law had no real basis in the form of aggression from Russia and was beneficial for Ukrainian politicians to prepare for the elections. Only 24% consider its introduction justified.
There is also no consensus regarding receiving a tomos. 39% of Ukrainians believe that receiving a tomos was a necessary and important step towards establishing the independence of the Ukrainian state. 33% are of the opinion that receiving the tomos was a mistake and caused a rift among citizens belonging to different faiths.
If in the West and in the Center there is a tendency towards more pro-Ukrainian interpretations of current events, then in the south and east, the proportion of those who “have not decided on their opinion” is higher. In addition, pro-Ukrainian and pro-Russian interpretations are at best equally common, and in some cases it is pro-Russian interpretations that predominate.
For example, for the start of the war in the West and in the Center, 62-65% blame Russia, 10-12.5% in Ukraine, and a quarter are undecided. In the South, the share of those who are “undecided” increases to 47%. At the same time, Russia is considered responsible by 30%, Ukraine – by 23%. In the East, the share of those who are “undecided” on their thoughts increases to 55%. And in this region there are already twice as many of those who place responsibility on Ukraine - 31% versus 14.5% who place responsibility on Russia.
The survey was conducted from February 9 to February 20, 2019 using personal interviews in the respondents’ households. In total, as part of the study, 2042 interviews were conducted with respondents living in 110 settlements of Ukraine.
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