Ukrainians open to limited territorial concessions for peace – poll
A recent survey found that 43% of Ukrainians are willing to accept Russia’s de facto occupation of some territories without legal recognition, provided that Ukraine receives security guarantees. However, Ukrainians are strongly opposed to the official recognition of the occupation or the transfer of Ukrainian territories to Russian control.
Source: results of a Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) survey conducted from 15 May to 3 June 2025
Quote: "Therefore, if we are asking about the official recognition of certain territories as part of Russia, then the vast majority (68%) will be against it. Ready to accept – 24% (note that we are talking about ‘certain territories’, not all occupied territories; depending on the territories, there may be significant differentiation).
Also, the absolute majority – 78% – reject the transfer of territories controlled by Ukraine under Russian control. Only 15% are ready to accept this.
The only option where there is at least room for discussion is de facto recognition of Russian control without de jure recognition. Even in this case, 43% are ready to accept, and 48% are categorically against."
Details: The survey observes that if a peace plan includes security guarantees and other key components for Ukraine’s future, over half of Ukrainians could, albeit reluctantly, accept such a scenario to end the war.
Any option involving the official recognition of Ukrainian territories as part of Russia, or the transfer of non-occupied territories to Russian control, would be rejected.
However, Ukrainians demonstrate pragmatic flexibility and are open to discussing a compromise involving de facto recognition of Russian control without de jure recognition.
The results also suggest that when Ukrainians discuss "territorial concessions", they primarily interpret these as acknowledging Russia’s temporary control over certain territories, without official recognition from Ukraine or the international community.
For reference: The survey was conducted by KIIS from 15 May to 3 June 2025, during which it independently added questions about readiness for territorial concessions and conducted an experiment to assess how different interpretations of "territorial concessions" affect responses.
Using telephone interviews based on a random sample of mobile numbers in all government-controlled regions of Ukraine, 2,004 respondents were interviewed (approximately 500 randomly selected respondents answered each of four question variants on territorial concessions).
The survey included Ukrainian citizens aged 18 and above.
Under normal circumstances, the statistical error for a sample of 2,004 respondents does not exceed 2.9%. For a sample of approximately 500 respondents, the error does not exceed 5.8%.
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