Poll: 67% of Ukrainians ready to vote for membership in NATO

A total of 42% of Ukrainian citizens believe that the membership in NATO is the best guarantee of national security.

The poll results were made public by political analyst of the Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Foundation Ruslan Kermach at a press conference, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

As he noted, the number of Ukrainians, who consider the accession to NATO to be better than other security options, has grown more than three-fold since 2012: from 13% up to 42%.

According to the poll results, 63% of Ukrainians would have participated in the referendum on NATO membership if it had been held in August this year. In particular, 67% would vote in favor of joining the Alliance, and 28% - against.

Ukrainians see the main function of NATO in the protection of its member countries from the armed attack (37%). Among the important functions of NATO the respondents also named the fight against international terrorism (27%), while almost the same number believes that the United States uses NATO as a tool for influencing the political processes in the world and Europe (25%).

The nationwide poll was conducted by the Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Foundation and the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology on August 16-28, 2018. A total of 2,041 respondents aged 18 and older were interviewed in all regions of Ukraine except for the temporarily occupied territories of Crimea and Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

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