The overwhelming majority, 72%, of Ukrainian citizens are confident that the Ukrainian language is an important attribute of Ukraine's independence. Only about 25% disagree.
In Ukraine's West, only 3% believe language is not important in this regard, says the survey by the Ilko Kucheriv Foundation for Democratic Initiatives and the Razumkov Center.
In the center of Ukraine, the ratio is 77% against 20% do not. At the same time, 49% of respondents in the eastern regions claim language is not an integral part of Ukraine's independence.
Read alsoUkraine's top intelligence official talks Russian threats in media domainSome 20% of Ukrainians overall consider the issues of language development as top priority. Another 44% consider the development of the Ukrainian language an important issue, while admitting that the country has more pressing needs. Another 33% consider the issue to be secondary.
Most respondents claiming top priority for language development issues reside in the country's West (42%) against just 4% in the east where at the same time 55% of those surveyed consider the language development issue a secondary matter.
Also, most citizens believe that the rights of Russian speakers are not being violated.
The majority of Ukrainians (52%) believe that the rights of Russian-speaking citizens are not violated in Ukraine (including 76% in the West). Another 26% believe that the rights of Russian speakers are violated in some cases (including 40% in the East), and 10% speak of constant violations (21% in the East), the press release says.
Survey: details
- The nationwide poll was conducted from August 14 to 19, 2020, in all regions of Ukraine but Crimea and the occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
- A total of 2,018 respondents aged 18 and over were polled through face-to-face interviews at home in a sample representing the adult population.
- The theoretical sampling error does not exceed 2.3%.
- The survey was funded by the Dutch Embassy in Ukraine.
Earlier, Secretary of Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) Oleksiy Danilov says Ukraine should have only one state language, namely, Ukrainian.
