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retaliate. In mid-April, Moscow banned imports of Ukrainian machines, exports of oil and oil products to Ukraine shortly after Kiev banned imports of glass canning jars, glass bottles and other glass containers for foods and beverages, carbamide-formaldehyde concentrate, resins, and electric accessories for commutation used in railway automatics equipment.
2.3 Polls & Sociology
Donbass conflict is a top priority for Ukrainians, The Rating polling agency released on May 16th a new survey (conducted just after the second round of the election) assessing Ukrainians’ main perspectives and hopes. The war in Donbass, the return of Ukrainian POWs detained in Russia and the rise of prices were considered the three main problems faced by the country. The poll shows that, beyond the anti-Poroshenko vote, Ukrainians gave Zelensky a clear mandate to try and resolve the conflict in Donbass, something Zelensky himself mentioned in his speech. 65% of Ukrainians, and 50% of people living in the country’s Western region, said Ukraine should compromise in order to restore peace and win back its lost territory. “Compromise” is an extremely vague term, but it’s long been considered akin to surrender in some political circles, making support for this concept quite significant in itself. Almost 75% of respondents (and 62% of people in Ukraine’s West) also support direct negotiations with Russia. Hopes are high, meaning that potential for disappointment is high too: a lot will depend on the Kremlin’s willingness to enter in negotiations with Zelensky, and there's no indication it is ready to do so (this without mentioning Crimea, a red line for both countries). These numbers are nevertheless quite important as the Zelensky administration started floating the controversial idea of a referendum on a peace agreement with Russia. We still know nothing about what exactly would be asked, but it is sure to be a hotly debated topic.
The majority of Ukrainians (58%) trust the new Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy, according to poll from the Oleksandr Yaremenko Ukrainian Institute for Social Research, the Social Monitoring Center, and the Institute of Economics and Forecasting of Ukraine's National Academy of Sciences Interfax Ukraine reported on May 23. Just under 58% of Ukrainians generally trust Zelenskiy, 35.1% are more likely to trust the president, and 23% of citizens trust him completely, according to the poll. Former President Petro Poroshenko was trusted by only 15% of respondents (11.3% and 3.7%, respectively). The Ukrainian Armed Forces enjoy the trust of more than 64% of respondents, the National Police 30.7%, law enforcement agencies 30.6%, the SBU Security Service of Ukraine 29.9%, the Prosecutor General's Office 18.4%, and the National Anti-corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) 15.3%, the poll found. Another 22.9% of Ukrainians have confidence in the National Bank of Ukraine, 14.8% in the Cabinet, 13.3% in political parties, and 10.3% in the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's parliament.
Nearly half of Ukrainians support the idea of granting autonomy to the Donbass republics within Ukraine and finding a peaceful solution to the conflict, shows a poll conducted by the Social Monitoring center, the Rating sociological group and the Yaremenko Ukrainian Institute for Social Research. According to the survey’s results, 24.5% of respondents support the idea of autonomy, while another 24.4% are likely to support it. At the same time, 20.7% of those polled spoke out against Donbass autonomy another 12.8% said they were likely to oppose such an initiative.
More than 70% of Ukrainians support President Vladimir Zelensky’s decision to dissolve Verkhovna Rada and carry out an early election, according to the poll results released by the Rating sociological group on May 22. That said, 58% of those polled stated that they will search for an alternative among new parties at the early election, whereas 26% are ready to vote for political forces represented in this Verkhovna Rada.
20 UKRAINE Country Report June 2019 www.intellinews.com