Ukrainians do not like them

The overwhelming majority of Ukrainians (77%) believe that the military operation in Iraq will have negative consequences for Ukraine. Such a manifestation of public opinion was recorded by pollsters of the Democratic Initiatives Fund and Taylor Nelson Sofres Ukraine in its latest nationwide poll held in late February and early March, with 1200 respondents polled. 11% of those polled think the war will not influence our country in any way, 1% suppose the likely consequences of the Iraq operation will be positive for Ukraine. Even more respondents (92%) opposed the military operation. 82% of them said starting a war was unacceptable under any circumstances, and 10% pointed out that such an operation could not be justified unless it was proved that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. Since the latter has not been proven, this part of the respondents can be regarded as strong opponents of the war that unfortunately has started. Only 2.5% of the polled believe the hostilities in Iraq can be justified.

Iryna Bekeshkina, supervisor of research at the Democratic Initiatives Fund, told a Friday press conference that in the future the experts will ask people what kind of the consequences of military operations they fear. Drawing parallels to the surveys concerning Ukraine’s NATO membership, she voiced an idea that in the first place Ukrainians fear the involvement of this country in hostilities. Her counterpart Oleksandr Stehniy, deputy director of the Socis Center for Political and Electoral Studies, thinks Ukrainians are afraid primarily of events that could directly influence Ukraine’s national security.

Although sociologists have not yet polled the population on sending a Ukrainian chemical, biological, and radiological warfare battalion to Kuwait, Mr. Stehniy assumed the voting results in Verkhovna Rada would in no way affect the ratings of the leading politicians. Also addressing the press conference, People’s Deputy Hennady Udovenko, leader of the People’s Rukh of Ukraine and president of the 52nd Session of the UN General Assembly, expressed his opinion that the parliament’s decision to send the CBR battalion to the hot spot is a real confirmation of this country’s Euro-Atlantic aspirations.