Poll: About half of Ukrainians support accession to NATO

43.6% of those polled by the Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Foundation and the Razumkov Center believe that the NATO is a safeguard for Ukraine.

This is evidenced by the results of the poll published on the site of the Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Foundation.

Thus, 26.2% of respondents consider the alliance to be neither a safeguard nor a threat, while 14.6% of respondents consider it to be a threat, and 15.6% are undecided.

At the same time, 48.1% of respondents would vote for Ukraine's accession to NATO, 33.4% would vote against accession, and 18.6% said they did not know how they would vote  if such a referendum was held.

The respondents were asked to give reasons for their preference.

 85.6% of the NATO supporters believe that accession will provide security guarantees to the country, 33.1% – provide an opportunity to strengthen and modernize the Ukrainian army, 25.1% – increase the prestige of Ukraine at the international arena, 20.6% –contribute to the development of Ukraine as a democratic state, 18.1% –be a step on the path of Ukraine towards the EU.

44.4% of NATO opponents responded that accession could drag Ukraine into NATO military operations, 26.6% said Ukraine should in principle be a non-aligned state. 25.7% of NATO opponents stated the accession requires significant additional funds, 24.9% claimed NATO is an aggressive imperialist bloc.

2,018 respondents aged 18 and older were interviewed in all the regions of Ukraine except Crimea and the occupied territories of Luhansk and Donetsk regions on June 9-13.

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