Most Ukrainians think Donbas, Crimea should be returned peacefully

Over 60% of Ukrainians believe that the return of temporarily occupied territories by political and diplomatic means would be an optimal strategy for resolving the situation in eastern Ukraine, according to a survey conducted by the Socis Center for Social and Marketing Research.

According to the poll, 62.3% of Ukrainians believe that an optimal strategy for resolving the situation in eastern Ukraine would be the return of temporarily occupied territories by political and diplomatic means. Some 10.1% of those polled called for the isolation of occupied territories and the freezing of the conflict, hoping that it will be possible to return them later. Some 8.9% of respondents support the military offensive and use of force to return occupied territories. Another 7.7% of respondents said that they support a complete refusal fromany attempts to return the occupied territories of Donbas. Less than a percentage of citizens called other options for addressing the situation in the eastern part of the country, and 10.3% refused to answer.

The nationwide study "Ukraine in the run-up to the 2019 presidential election - February" was held from February 8 to February 18, 2019. A total of 2,000 respondents were interviewed in all regions of Ukraine, except for the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk regions. The poll's margin of error is about 2.1%.

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