65% of Ukrainians think Russia started war in Donbas

Some 65% of Ukrainians believe that Russia started the war in the Donbas, according to a survey entitled "Threat of a new invasion: public opinion about the conflict, possible compromises and opposition to Russia."

That's according to Maria Zolkina, an analyst with the Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Foundation, who participated in a public discussion on "Ukraine's place in 2022: what expectations unite Ukrainians with the civilized world?" at Ukrinform.

"Some 65% of Ukrainians believe that the war in the Donbas was started by the Russian Federation. And this is the view of the vast majority of voters of key political parties that a month ago had a chance to get into parliament in the event of early elections. That is, [these are the voters of] European Solidarity, Servant of the People, Batkivshchyna, the Strength and Honor party. Only the voters of two parties that had a chance to get into parliament a month ago according to a poll -- Opposition Platform - For Life and Nashi -- the vast majority of voters of these political parties believe that the initiators of the conflict in the Donbas were the Ukrainian government and Ukrainian oligarchs," Zolkina said, presenting the results of the poll.

She also said that 68% of citizens believe the conflict in the Donbas is Russian aggression with the use of local militants.

"And it is very important that during the second half of 2021, the number of those supporting this position -- that this is Russian aggression with the use of local militants -- increased by almost 15%. In May 2021, when we posed a similar question, we recorded 53% of Ukrainians who thought it was Russian aggression," the analyst said.

A nationwide survey was conducted by the Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Foundation together with the Razumkov Center's sociological service from December 17 to 22, 2021, in all regions of Ukraine, except for Crimea and the temporarily occupied territories of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. Some 2,018 respondents aged 18 and older were interviewed. The poll's margin of error is 2.3%.

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