Poll: Almost 3/4 of Ukrainians support Ukraine's restoration of nuclear weapons
Kyiv • UNN
73% of Ukrainians support the restoration of Ukraine's nuclear arsenal. 58% are ready to do so even if the country loses Western support, if it has sufficient resources.
According to a recent poll by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology, the majority of Ukrainians in all regions are generally in favor of restoring nuclear weapons. This was reported by UNN with reference to KIIS.
Details
Overall, 73% of respondents favor the idea of restoring nuclear weapons. 20% do not support it (and another 7% have undecided views).
If we talk about the loss of support and sanctions from the West, the favorable attitude towards the restoration of nuclear weapons decreases to 46%, and the share of those who do not support such an initiative will increase to 44%. It is noted that the remaining 10% have undecided views.
However, if Ukraine has enough resources to hold out until it obtains nuclear weapons, 58% of respondents would be willing to lose Western support in order to obtain nuclear weapons. In such a scenario, 33% of respondents would not support the decision to obtain nuclear weapons. The remaining 8% have undecided views.
It is noted that in the South and in the East, there is a slightly more skeptical attitude toward the restoration of nuclear weapons. However, in fact, even despite these nuances, in all regions, the majority - from 61% in the East to 77% in the West - are generally favorable to the restoration of nuclear weapons.
In the case of the scenario with the loss of Western support, the share of those who favor the restoration of nuclear weapons decreases in all regions, and as a result, the share of those who are for and against is approximately equal. Only in the East, the number of those who are against is somewhat higher, the KIIS said.
At the same time, in the scenario of losing Western support but having the resources and ability to develop weapons, the majority in all regions (63% in the West, 54% in the Center, 58% in the South, and 61% in the East) would support the restoration of nuclear weapons (and a quarter to a third would oppose).
The survey was conducted on December 2-17, 2024. Using the method of telephone interviews (computer-assisted telephone interviews, CATI) , 2000 respondents were interviewed based on a random sample of mobile phone numbers (with random generation of phone numbers and subsequent statistical weighting) in all regions of Ukraine (government-controlled territory of Ukraine). The survey was conducted with adult citizens of Ukraine (aged 18 and older) who at the time of the survey resided in the territory of Ukraine controlled by the Government of Ukraine . The sample did not include residents of the territories temporarily not controlled by the Ukrainian authorities (at the same time, some respondents were IDPs who moved from the occupied territories), and the survey was not conducted with citizens who left the country after February 24, 2022.
Formally, under normal circumstances, the statistical error of such a sample (with a probability of 0.95 and taking into account the design effect of 1.3) did not exceed 2.9% for indicators close to 50%, 2.5% for indicators close to 25%, 1.7% for indicators close to 10%, and 1.3% for indicators close to 5%.
In wartime, in addition to this formal error, a certain systematic deviation is added.
