On July 7th 2022 the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) published a commentary by Andrew Wilson (Professor of Ukrainian Studies in UCL's School of Slavonic and East European Studies) named “Resilient Ukraine”. In his article, Wilson emphasises on the social cohesion of Ukrainian society, connecting the ‘Maidan’ tradition of civil resistance with a high level of readiness of Ukrainians to defend their country, citing data from an April Info Sapiens survey on the topic of war with Russia.
According to survey results, 70% of Ukrainians, to one extent or another, are prepared to take up arms to defend Ukraine. Over 85% would completely or rather support their family or friends in their willingness to defend Ukraine. 27% of Ukrainians stated that they already support the military, and 67% are completely or rather ready to do so, while 66% of the respondents already undertook or are prepared to undertake military training. 85% of Ukrainians are ready to peacefully demonstrate against occupants, while 0,8% already do so on the temporarily occupied territories. 73% of the respondents backed the opinion that Ukraine should continue fighting as long as it takes to victory, and over 70% agree that Russia attacked Ukraine because it feared a strong and independent Ukraine. However, only 3,4% thought that Ukraine could fight on its own, while 61% stated that Ukraine needs foreign support but still is able to fight mainly on its own.
In his conclusion, Wilson describes the mood of Ukrainian society as “defiant”, stating that Ukrainians are not ready to agree to a premature peace with Russia, considering it to be likely to only make things worse.
Survey information
The survey sample consists of 1000 respondents. The survey was conducted by CATI (computer-assisted telephone interviews) based on a random sample of mobile phone numbers. The sample is representative of the population aged 18 years old and older by gender, age, size of settlement, and region of residence. The Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the non-government-controlled areas of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts were removed from the study. Also, the survey does not cover Ukrainians who have gone abroad and residents of occupied settlements where there is no connection. The maximum theoretical error does not exceed 3.1%, with a confidence level of 0,95. The survey was conducted in April 2022.