Survey: Half of Ukrainians would protest major concessions to Russia

More than half of Ukrainians said they would take part in protests if their country made unacceptable compromises during peace negotiations with Russia.

The findings come from a survey conducted by the research agency Info Sapiens for the New Europe Center, Ukrainska Pravda reported. The survey was conducted from November 5 to 26, 2025, with 1,000 respondents.

The survey found that 51.4 percent of respondents are willing to protest, 44.3 percent would not participate, and 4.4 percent were undecided.

The study also shows how Ukrainians’ attitudes toward various concessions have changed in recent years. For example, a temporary relinquishment of occupied territories is considered completely unacceptable by 40.2 percent of Ukrainians, compared with 53.2 percent a year ago and 76.2 percent two years ago. 

Only 5.1percent view this concession as fully acceptable.

Even fewer Ukrainians are open to legally recognizing the occupied territories as part of Russia: just 2 percent while 76.6 percent are firmly opposed.

The percentage of those who find abandoning NATO membership unacceptable has also declined, now at 41.1 percent (compared with 48.7 percent last year and 56.9 percent two years ago). 

At the same time, giving up EU membership is seen as completely unacceptable by 51 percent of respondents, slightly higher than last year (50.7 percent).

Support is also rising for maintaining the army (77.9 percent against 74.5 percent last year) and opposing granting Russian the status of a second official language (73 percent against 70.9 percent).

Meanwhile, slightly fewer Ukrainians consider it unacceptable to reduce reparations from Russia (58.7 percent versus. 62.2 percent), to abandon criminal prosecution of Russian leaders and war criminals (65 percent versus. 68.4 percent), or to lift sanctions (64.1 percent versus. 64.8 percent).