Poll says 32% of Ukrainians open to territorial concessions for quick peace

KYIV - Nearly a third of Ukrainians would accept some territorial concessions to Russia for a quick end to the war, a more than three-fold increase over the past year, although most still oppose giving up any land, a poll showed on July 23.

The Kyiv International Institute of Sociology said its poll of 1,067 people on Ukrainian-held territory from May 16-22 found that 32 per cent would agree to some form of territorial concessions, up from just 10 per cent a year earlier and 19 per cent at the end of 2023.

It said 55 per cent of Ukrainians remain opposed to making any territorial concessions.

Nearly 29 months since its full-scale invasion, Russia occupies around 18 per cent of Ukrainian territory, including the Crimean peninsula it seized in 2014. Kyiv's troops have been on the back foot this year, facing a Russian offensive after their counteroffensive failed to make significant gains in 2023.

The survey did not ask those polled what territorial concessions they would be open to or how large they should be. KIIS said those polled did not necessarily see concessions as equating to recognising the territory as Russian.

"For example, some people are ready to postpone the liberation of certain territories until the future at a better time," KIIS said, in a statement with its findings.

Russia in 2022 unilaterally declared it had annexed the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, which it partially controls.

In remarks published alongside the survey, KIIS executive director Anton Hrushetskyi said Ukrainians remained against the idea of reaching a peace settlement with Russia at any cost.

"It's... important that in the context of possible 'concessions', Ukrainians are against 'peace on any terms'," he said. REUTERS