Almost 60% of Ukrainians back accession to EU

Executive Director of the Kyiv Press Club Mykhailo Peresunko said this during the presentation of a study "Socio-political situation in Ukraine; public opinion of Ukraine's population: May 2018" at Ukrinform on Thursday.

"We note that there is a steady trend towards an increase in the number of respondents who are in favor of joining the European Union. Today, according to our results, this figure is 59.4%," Peresunko said, explaining the respondents' answers to the question as to how they would vote if a referendum on Ukraine's accession to the EU were held in the coming week.

According to him, 17.1% of respondents opposed Ukraine's accession to the EU. At the same time, he said, according to the poll, one in ten Ukrainians (10.7%) would not take part in the referendum, and another 12.8% could not answer.

"As for joining the military and political bloc NATO, we also notice a growing trend. Of course, the level of support is slightly lower than that of joining the European Union, but it is still a very positive figure that the number of those who support NATO membership reaches almost half of the Ukrainian population. Some 48.4% of respondents are ready to vote today for accession to NATO," Peresunko said.

At the same time, he said, 26% are against Ukraine's joining NATO, 9% would not participate in the vote, and 16.2% of those polled were undecided.

Peresunko said that Russia's foreign aggression was a significant cause of growing support for Ukraine's accession to NATO.

A total of 2,022 respondents were interviewed. The poll's margin of error does not exceed 2.2%. 

op