The specifics of guarantees change Ukrainians’ willingness to make concessions <\/p>\n
Most Ukrainians reject the transfer of Donbas to Russian control – even if the US and Europe provide security guarantees in return.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
This is reported by RBC-Ukraine, citing a new survey from the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Also read:<\/strong> How many Ukrainians believe negotiations will bring peace: what the survey showed<\/p>\n The survey was conducted from March 1 to 8, 2026, among 1,003 respondents, according to the KII.<\/p>\n Two out of three are against it<\/p>\n 62% of Ukrainians consider the transfer of the entire Donetsk region to Russia an absolutely unacceptable condition – even in exchange for security guarantees from the US and Europe.<\/p>\n 33% would agree to such a concession, while another 5% were undecided.<\/p>\n Compared to mid-February, the number of those who are categorically against it has increased – at that time, it was 57%.<\/p>\n What happens when guarantees are specified<\/p>\n In February, KII conducted an experiment: if it is clearly explained that security guarantees from the US do not involve the deployment of their troops in Ukraine, closing the sky, and providing weapons for free – support for such a proposal sharply declines.<\/strong><\/p>\n Willingness to fight depends on the stance on Donbas<\/p>\n KII also recorded another correlation – between attitudes towards the transfer of Donbas and the willingness to endure the war.<\/p>\n Among those who are categorically against surrendering Donbas:<\/p>\n Among those who easily agree to a trade:<\/p>\n This means that those who reject the transfer of Donbas are also morally more resilient to a prolonged war.<\/p>\n “For Ukrainians, security guarantees are a fundamental issue, and for the majority, peace will have no meaning or value if that peace is ‘on any terms’,” noted KII Executive Director Anton Grushetsky.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Earlier, RBC-Ukraine also reported that in January 2026, only 40% of Ukrainians believed that the US would provide all necessary support to repel a possible new attack from Russia as part of the promised guarantees.<\/p>\n At the same time, according to the same KII data, 61% of Ukrainians trust President Volodymyr Zelensky, while 33% do not trust him. The trust-distrust balance is plus 28%.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The specifics of guarantees change Ukrainians’ willingness to make concessions. The majority of Ukrainians reject the transfer of Donbas to Russian control\u2014even if the U.S. and Europe offer security guarantees in return.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":64195,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"magazine_newspaper_sidebar_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-64280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-society-en"],"yoast_head":"\n\n
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