A significant portion of Ukrainians — 64% — support direct negotiations between Ukraine and Russia. While the absolute majority (81%) believe that the real way to end the war is to find a compromise solution and involve third countries.
This is evidenced by a survey conducted by the sociological group "Rating".
Its results show that Ukrainians categorically do not accept (91% are against) the US-Russia talks on a ceasefire without Ukraineʼs participation, believing that the normalization of US-Russian relations is a benefit primarily for Russia and a harm for Ukraine, as well as for the European Union.
The majority of respondents (83%) are convinced that Ukraine should agree to a ceasefire only if it receives security guarantees.
The survey was conducted on February 20-21 among Ukrainians aged 18 and over in all regions, except for the temporarily occupied territories of Crimea, Luhansk and Donetsk regions. A total of 1,200 respondents participated. They were interviewed via telephone interviews based on a random sample of mobile phone numbers. The representativeness error does not exceed 2.8%.
Peace negotiations
The US President Donald Trump called Putin and said they had agreed to immediately begin peace talks. At the time, the foreign ministers of Ukraine, Britain and the EU said that Ukraine and Europe should be part of any talks to end the Russian-Ukrainian war.
At the Munich Security Conference, Trumpʼs special envoy Keith Kellogg said that Europe would not physically sit at the negotiating table between Russia and Ukraine, but its interests would be taken into account. Now Donald Trump believes that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky "doesnʼt really care to be at the meetings".
The Axios publication, which revealed the details of the conversation between Zelensky and Trump, noted that the US president supported the idea of deploying European peacekeeping forces in Ukraine — this could become one of the security guarantees.
The FT noted that the US has asked European countries to submit detailed proposals for the weapons, peacekeeping troops and security measures they could provide to Ukraine as part of any security guarantees. The United States wants to gauge Europe’s willingness to defend Ukraine after a peaceful settlement and to determine the price Europe is willing to pay in exchange for participating in negotiations with Moscow. In return, the US is asking what Europe wants from Washington in return.
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