Forty-two percent of Ukrainians are in favor of the country's possible accession to NATO, Ruslan Kermach, a representative of Kiev-based Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Foundation think tank, said on Tuesday.
KIEV (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 11th September, 2018) Forty-two percent of Ukrainians are in favor of the country's possible accession to NATO, Ruslan Kermach, a representative of Kiev-based Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Foundation think tank, said on Tuesday.
Last week, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko submitted a bill to the parliament on amending the constitution to codify the country's course toward the European Union and NATO membership in the law. Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin said that the issue of establishing NATO military bases in Ukraine could be raised before the country's entry into the alliance. According to the minister, Ukraine will change the constitution prior to that.
"The situation with public opinion has changed dramatically. The level of support [for entering NATO] has more than tripled [since 2012]. It was 13 percent in 2012, ... as of August of 2018, we see that 42 percent of citizens support membership in NATO," Kermach told a press conference.
He added that only 6 percent of Ukrainians supported the idea of a military alliance with Russia and other CIS countries, while over 35 percent of respondents were in favor of the non-bloc status of Ukraine.
The poll was conducted by the Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Foundation on August 16-28 among 2,041 people across Ukraine.
In 2014, Ukraine relinquished its status of non-affiliation with any blocs. In 2016, additional legislation was adopted to set Ukraine's interest in joining NATO as one of the key national priorities.
NATO and EU officials have repeatedly stressed that Ukraine needed to implement a wide range of reforms before it could pursue membership in either bloc.
