Poll: Most Ukrainians do not believe in the success of the current talks and are against the withdrawal of troops from the Donetsk region

The vast majority of Ukrainians — 70% — do not believe that the current negotiations will lead to a lasting peace.

This is evidenced by the results of the KIIS survey.

25% believe in the success of the negotiations, the remaining 5% are undecided. Compared to mid-January 2026, there have been no changes on this issue.

In addition, 57% of Ukrainians categorically reject the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from the Donetsk region in exchange for security guarantees from the US and Europe. Overall, 36% are ready (although mostly reluctantly). The remaining 7% could not decide or refused to answer.

At the end of January 2026, 52% were categorically against and 40% were generally ready to support such a proposal, in mid-January 2026 — 54% and 38%, respectively. That is, overall, there have been no significant changes in public sentiment over the past month.

The survey was conducted from February 12 to 24 using telephone interviews based on a random sample of mobile phone numbers in all controlled regions of Ukraine. A total of 2 004 respondents were interviewed.

During the survey, half of the respondents (1 003 respondents) were asked the usual monitoring questions that KIIS had asked earlier, in January 2026. For the other half of the respondents (1 001 respondents), the questions about the Donetsk region and security guarantees were formulated differently.

Formally, under normal circumstances, the statistical error of a sample of about 1 000 respondents (with a probability of 0.95 and taking into account the design effect of 1.3) did not exceed 4.1%.

Negotiations between Ukraine, Russia and the USA

The first direct trilateral talks between delegations of Ukraine, Russia, and the United States were held in Abu Dhabi on January 23-24. Their main topic was the possible terms of ending the war, but the negotiators did not achieve any concrete results.

The next round of negotiations took place in Abu Dhabi on February 4-5. The parties focused on the mechanisms of the ceasefire and how it would be monitored by the United States. But the delegations were unable to finally agree on the details without political decisions at the highest level. At the same time, they agreed on the first exchange of prisoners between Ukraine and Russia in the last five months — 157 Ukrainians returned home.

After that, Ukraine, Russia, and the United States held peace talks in Geneva on February 17-18. Zelensky said at the time that the military had almost agreed on how to monitor the ceasefire, but there had been no progress on the issues of territories and the Zaporizhzhia NPP.

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