KYIV. Feb 27 (Interfax) - The proportion of supporters of Ukraine's NATO membership is higher than that of the opponents, and were a referendum on the matter held in February 2019, 40% of Ukrainians would vote for and 31% against their country joining the alliance.
The remaining 28% were undecided or would not take part in the referendum, according to the findings of a social poll conducted by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS).
The share of those ready to vote for NATO membership has dropped from 45% in September 2017 to 40%, for the first time since 2015-early 2017, the pollster said. The share of those undecided or who would not go to the referendum, has remained at 28%.
"This means that despite certain fluctuations in the mood, the Ukrainians' attitude to the NATO membership issue has remained fairly stable in the past four years," KIIS said.
The idea of NATO membership is supported mainly in western and central Ukraine, while most in the south and east are opposed.
Were a referendum on NATO membership held in February 2019, the proportions of supporters, opponents and the undecided or non-participants would be distributed as follows: in western regions - 56%, 10% and 34%; in central regions 50%, 22% and 29%; in southern regions - 24%, 52% and 24%; and in eastern regions - 14%, 60% and 26%, respectively.
The KIIS conducted its own nationwide poll on February 8 - 20 by personally interviewing 2,042 respondents living in 110 towns and cities in all Ukrainian regions, using the method of four-stage stochastic sampling representative of the Ukrainian population aged above 18. In the Luhansk and Donetsk regions, the poll was only conducted in the Ukraine-controlled areas.