60% of Ukrainians oppose ceding Donbas to Russia but may accept war "freeze"

A total of 60% of Ukrainians consider it categorically unacceptable to transfer control of all of Donbas to Russia in exchange for security guarantees, yet almost 60% could accept a freezing of the war along the current line of contact in exchange for security guarantees and significant financial support for Ukraine.

Source: Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) survey conducted 20 July-3 August 2026

Details: According to the survey, 33% are nonetheless prepared to accept such a concession, though the majority of them acknowledge it is a difficult condition. A further 7% were unable to form a definitive view.

The survey found that in all regions, a majority rejects the proposal to withdraw Ukrainian forces in exchange for security guarantees. Compared with April, rejection of such a proposal has also increased slightly in Kyiv and in central, northern and eastern regions. In the Lower Dnipro region, in the south, figures remained unchanged. Only in the west has the share of those prepared to accept the proposal increased slightly, though a majority remains opposed.

Moreover, despite a relentless ballistic missile and other bombardment campaign, the willingness of Kyiv residents to accept the proposal has actually declined – from 34% to 26%. The share of those categorically opposed has risen from 62% to 69%.

The trend persists that younger Ukrainians are more willing to accept a withdrawal of forces from Donetsk Oblast. Among respondents aged 60 and over, 22% are prepared to accept this, rising to 34% among those aged 45-59, then to 39% among those aged 30-44, and to 42% among those aged 18-29.

At the same time, among the youngest Ukrainians there is a downward trend compared with April, when 54% were prepared to accept the proposal, compared with 42% now.

In the scenario of a war freeze along the current line of contact in exchange for security guarantees in the form of significant financial support and weapons supply, 59% of respondents said they were prepared to accept it – though predominantly with reluctance. 31% are categorically opposed to this scenario.

For reference: The KIIS survey was conducted on 20 July-3 August 2026 across all government-controlled regions of Ukraine. A total of 974 respondents were surveyed – adult (aged 18 and over) Ukrainian citizens residing on government-controlled territory of Ukraine at the time of the survey.

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 4.1% for indicators close to 50%, 3.5% for indicators close to 25%, 2.5% for indicators close to 10%, 1.8% for indicators close to 5%.

Under conditions of war, in addition to the specified formal error, a certain systematic deviation is added. Factors that may affect the quality of results in "wartime" conditions were previously cited by KIIS.

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