Most Ukrainians say would back Ukraine's entry into EU and NATO - poll

MOSCOW. June 21 (Interfax) - The overwhelming majority (87%) of Ukrainian citizens would vote in favor of Ukraine's accession to the European Union in a relevant referendum, the Ukrainian media said, citing the findings of a nationwide public opinion survey conducted by the Rating sociological group on June 18-19.

A mere 4% of respondents said they would vote against Ukraine's entry into the EU, and 8% said they would not take part in such a referendum at all.

Respondents in all macro-regions and from all age-groups are unanimously in favor of Ukraine's possible accession to the EU.

Sixty-nine percent of those polled believe that Ukraine may join the EU in five years (40% said within 1-2 years, and 29% within the next five years). Another 14% of respondents spoke about a period of five to ten years, and 3% said Ukraine may become an EU member within the next 10-20 years.

Meanwhile, citizens' support for Ukraine's accession to NATO has also grown. Seventy-six percent of respondents said they would vote for this initiative should it be put to a referendum. Ten percent of those polled said they would vote against it, and 12% said they would not participate in such a referendum at all.

Sixty-eight percent of Ukrainians backed Ukraine's hypothetical entry into NATO in March 2022.

Unlike accession to the EU, Ukraine's hypothetical accession to NATO has receive a more cautious reaction from residents of Ukraine's eastern regions, where 55% said they would support it, 20% said they would vote against, and 22% said they would not participate in such a referendum, the poll results show.

The survey, conducted via the computer-assisted telephone interviewing method, involved 1,200 respondents in all Kyiv-controlled regions where Ukrainian mobile providers operate. The results were measured using the up-to-date data of the State Statistics Service of Ukraine. Its sampling is representative in terms of age, gender and populated locality type. The margin of error with a 0.95 confidence coefficient is no more than 2.8%.