Rising number of Ukrainians see liberation of Crimea and Donbas as victory – survey

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The survey was conducted by the Rating Sociological Group on behalf of a public organization called the Transatlantic Dialogue Center.

This number of those seeing the full liberation of all Ukrainian territory as a necessary condition for victory is rising – only 74% of respondents held this opinion back in March, near the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion and war.

Only 9% of respondents said liberating only those territories that Ukraine controlled until Feb. 24, when Russia launched its invasion, would count as victory for Ukraine.

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The survey was conducted from Nov. 20-21. A total of 1,000 people were interviewed by phone in all regions of Ukraine, with the exception of the occupied areas of Donbas and Crimea, and areas of the country where there were no Ukrainian mobile phone services.

Kyrylo Budanov, the head of the HUR (Main Directorate of Intelligence) of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, said that the war should end by the summer. He predicted there would be significant victories for Ukrainian forces by the end of the current year.

The commander of the Joint Forces of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Serhiy Nayev said that the war in Ukraine will end once the country returns to its internationally recognized borders of 1991.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in August that Russia’s war against Ukraine should end with the liberation of Crimea – just as it began with its occupation early in 2014.

Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine