"Faced with such hardship, do ordinary Ukrainians want to continue fighting? Or do they want to sue for peace? Overwhelmingly, it seems, they want to continue fighting. Though there are a few caveats. "Following the first major strikes against Ukraine’s energy infrastructure in late October, the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology carried out a poll. Respondents were asked which of two statements they agreed with:
“It is necessary to continue armed resistance to Russian aggression, even if Shelling of Ukrainian cities continues”
“It is necessary to proceed to negotiations in order to stop the shelling of cities as soon as possible, even if this means making concessions to Russia"
”86% of people said they agreed with the first statement, and only 10% said they agreed with the second. The remainder said “Don’t know”. Interestingly, however, the results differed quite substantially by region ... In the West, only 8% favoured negotiations. But in the East, it was almost 30%. There are two possible explanations for this pattern. First, people in the East bear more of the costs of war, since that’s where most of the fighting is taking place. Second, people in the East are less nationalistic and/or more sympathetic to Russia (the historical pattern). I’m not sure which of these is correct, but it may be a bit of both. Can we trust a poll by the Kyiv Int. Institute? Yes. As far as I can tell, they’re a rigorously polling outfit. In 2014, they ran a poll for Professor Ivan Katchanovski – the scholar who’s done all the work on the Maidan massacre. And he’s been accused of having a bias in the opposite direction."
