A total of 64% of Ukrainians support the initiative for Ukraine to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
That's according to a recent survey run by the Ukrainian Institute for the Future (UIF) with the assistance of New Image Marketing Group, an UNIAN correspondent reported.
In particular, 43% of respondents fully support Ukraine's accession to NATO, 21% say they "rather support" it.
Read alsoMost Ukrainians positive Ukraine-Russia war ongoing in Donbas – pollAt the same time, 7% of respondents "rather oppose" the idea, while 12% fully oppose it.
Oleksandr Shulha, Doctor of Sociological Sciences, has noted that these indicators remain dynamic.
"When tensions rise in our country, when Russia deploys its troops, when there's direct invasion as it was in 2015, the number of those who believe that Ukraine needs to join NATO increases greatly. During periods of relative calm, the figure falls, but the share of those who believe that it's necessary to join NATO always exceeds the number of those who believe there's no need to join," he explained.
The number of NATO accession supporters has changed dramatically since 2014, when only 15-20% of respondents believed Ukraine needed to join the Alliance, while half of the respondents believed the country should not.
Read alsoZelensky: It's time for proposals for Ukraine to obtain NATO MAP, EU planAt the same time, the survey shows respondents remain rather skeptical about the near-future prospects for joining NATO. Only 7% of respondents are sure this is possible in the near future, up to a year from now, while 28% suggest such rapid accession is possible.
Another 37% of respondents are convinced that joining is possible, but not in the coming years, while 14% believe it is unlikely, and 14% believe Ukraine will never join NATO.
*** The survey was conducted in April. Some 1,148 respondents aged 18 and older were involved in an online survey on an interactive structured questionnaire in all regions except for the temporarily occupied territories of Crimea and Donbas. The margin of error does not exceed 3.5%.
