A vast majority of Ukrainians believe that Russia is determined to destroy Ukraine and will not stop at the territories it currently occupies, according to a survey by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) published on March 11.
The survey comes as U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on March 10 that Ukraine would need to make territorial concessions as part of any agreement to end the war.
According to KIIS, 87% of Ukrainians believe that Russia intends to continue its aggression beyond the currently occupied territories. This belief is consistent across all regions, with 80% in the east and south and 89-90% in the west and center agreeing that Moscow will not stop at the current front line.
Furthermore, 66% of respondents said that Russia's ultimate goal is Ukraine's destruction — 28% believe Moscow seeks physical genocide, while 38% say it aims to seize most or all of Ukraine's territory and eliminate its statehood and national identity.
A further 14% believe Russia seeks to occupy all or most of Ukraine and install a puppet government, while 7% think Moscow wants to consolidate control over the partially-occupied Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia oblasts.
The findings align with Russian statements, as Russia's Defense Minister Andrei Belousov said on Dec. 16, 2024, that Moscow aims to capture the entirety of the four Ukrainian oblasts in 2025.
Only 4% of respondents believe that Russia aims to maintain control over its existing territorial gains, and just 3% accept Russia's claim that it wants to "denazify" and demilitarize Ukraine. The remaining 7% were undecided.
The survey was conducted between Feb. 14 and March 4, with 1,029 respondents aged 18 and older interviewed by telephone across all Ukrainian government-controlled regions.
The survey results come amid growing concerns that U.S. President Donald Trump's push for a swift end to the war could lead to a peace deal on unfavorable terms for Ukraine, potentially leaving it vulnerable to future Russian attacks.
Tim Zadorozhnyy
