A majority of Ukrainians oppose ceding any land captured by Russia in exchange for peace, a survey shared on Tuesday found.
The Kyiv International Institute of Sociology carried out the poll a month before the election of Donald Trump, whose victory rekindled fears Washington may force Ukraine into giving up land.
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“As of the beginning of October 2024, despite all the difficult circumstances, the majority of Ukrainians – 58% – opposed any territorial concessions,” the survey said.
Kyiv, outgunned and outmanned by Moscow, has struggled to hold back steady advances from Russian forces in the eastern Donetsk region for weeks.
On the diplomatic front, it has contended with war fatigue from some Western allies, including from its main backer the United States, where the presidential elections revived debates over aid to Ukraine.
President-elect Trump has claimed he would end the fighting within 24 hours, without giving details how, while his running mate JD Vance has advocated freezing combat along current lines.
But the military and diplomatic setbacks had little effect on the polls, which showed that “between May and the beginning of October 2024, the situation actually did not change – currently 32% are ready for territorial concessions.”
That number has tripled since the beginning of the war, when 10% were in favor of giving up some territory.
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Moscow has repeated demands that Ukraine cede the territory occupied by Russia as a precondition to peace talks, a demand ruled out by Kyiv.
While a majority of Ukrainians answered 'no' when asked if they would approve generic territorial concessions, the numbers varied when pollsters asked if giving up some regions would be difficult, but acceptable.
Around 46% of Ukrainians would be ready to accept giving up Donbas and Crimea, the poll said, with 39% of them saying that compromise would be difficult.
Donbas is an eastern region encompassing Donetsk and Lugansk, currently mostly occupied by Russian forces, while Crimea is a peninsula that Russia occupied in 2014 and later annexed.
This summer, Ukraine launched an offensive and seized part of Russian territory, which it hopes could improve its position if it was forced to negotiate.
The survey comes on the heels of desperate action by American and European officials alike to shore up support for Ukraine before Trump takes office in January.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken headed on an emergency trip to Brussels on Tuesday to discuss how to support Ukraine with European allies.
The top US diplomat under outgoing President Joe Biden will meet Wednesday "with his NATO and European Union counterparts to discuss support for Ukraine in its defense against Russia's aggression," State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement.
Trump has in the past voiced admiration for Russian President Vladimir Putin and scoffed at the $175 billion in US assistance committed for Ukraine since Moscow's 2022 invasion.
Marco Rubio, Trump's pick to succeed Blinken, in a recent interview said that the United States needs to acknowledge that the Ukraine war was a "stalemate" and should show "pragmatism" in future support.
Trump has boasted that he can end the war in a day, likely by forcing concessions of Ukraine, although Mike Waltz, his newly named national security advisor, has said that Trump may also pressure Putin.
The Washington Post reported that Trump already after his election spoke to Putin by telephone and discouraged an escalation by Russia. The Kremlin denied the report.
The Biden administration has made clear it plans in its remaining weeks to push through the more than $9 billion of remaining funding appropriated by Congress for weapons and other security assistance to Ukraine.
"Our approach remains the same as it's been for the last two and a half years, which is to put Ukraine in the strongest possible position on the battlefield so that it is ultimately in the strongest possible position at the negotiating table," Jake Sullivan, Biden's national security advisor, told CBS News show "Face The Nation."
Mark Cancian, senior advisor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, expected the United States to focus in particular on sending vehicles, medical supplies, and small-arms ammunition, which Ukraine needs and the United States can provide.
"I think between now and the end of the administration, they're going to try to ship everything they can that's available," Cancian said.
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