Poll: 74% of Ukrainians against peace plan involving Kyiv's withdrawal from Donbas, army cap
Seventy-four percent of Ukrainians oppose a peace plan that would include Ukraine's withdrawal from the eastern Donbas region and a cap on the army's size without reliable security guarantees, according to results from a poll released by Kyiv International Institute of Sociology on Jan. 2.
The results from the survey, conducted between Nov. 26 to Dec. 29 among roughly 1,000 Ukrainians across the country, also revealed that 69% of Ukrainians support a peace plan that would freeze the war with security guarantees, as long as Ukraine is not forced to officially recognize Russian-occupied territories as part of Russia, Kyiv International Institute of Sociology said in its press release.
The poll results come as U.S. President Donald Trump continues his efforts to end the war in Ukraine, apparently frustrated by the slow progress since launching peace talks nearly a year ago. The initial U.S.-backed 28-point plan, which Ukrainians — from soldiers to politicians — vehemently rejected as “capitulation,” included a Ukrainian withdrawal from the partially Russian-occupied Donbas, cuts to the military’s size, and the suspension of NATO ambitions. Ukraine criticized the original version for closely mirroring Russia’s maximalist demands.
President Volodymyr Zelensky presented the revised 20-point framework on Dec. 23, which, if signed by leaders of Ukraine, Russia, the U.S., and Europe, would initiate a ceasefire to the nearly four-year-long full-scale war.
Despite Zelensky's statement on the peace talks progress, Kyiv International Institute of Sociology said that only 10% of Ukrainians expected the war to end by the beginning of 2026, and only 16% believed it would end in the first half of 2026.
Another recent poll conducted in the U.S. has also shown that nearly half of Americans are not in favor of Trump's handling of the war in Ukraine. The Economist/YouGov poll conducted among around 1,500 Americans from Dec. 26 to Dec. 29 revealed that 49% of respondents disapprove of the way Trump is handling the war.
The same poll showed that 29% of respondents favored increasing U.S. military aid to Ukraine, while 20% supported maintaining the current level.
