President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko in an interview with German edition Berliner Morgenrost said he is willing to hold a referendum about the prospects of Ukraine's membership in NATO.

Answering a question on whether the accession to NATO is a realistic goal for Ukraine, Poroshenko said that first and foremost Ukrainian people's opinion on this issue is important for him.

"Four years ago only 16% of Ukrainian people supported the idea of Ukraine joining NATO. Now 54% of Ukrainians support the idea. As a president, I am guided by the views of my people - I will hold a referendum on Ukraine's prospects for membership in NATO," the president said.

Poroshenko said that he would do everything possible to achieve NATO membership, if this idea is supported by a referendum.

As reported, the best way for Ukraine to guarantee its safety is by joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and, if a referendum on accession were held in the near future, more than three quarters of Ukrainians would vote for it.

According to the results of a poll conducted by the Democratic Initiatives Fund named after Ilko Kucheriv together with the sociological service of the Razumkov Centre, the best way to guarantee the country's security is by joining NATO (44.1%). Choosing an unaligned status for the nation was supported by 26.4% of respondents, followed by joining a military alliance with Russia and other former Soviet republics (6.4%). Only 3.9% of those polled favored a military alliance with the U.S.

Some 62.2% percent of those polled said they would vote in a referendum on NATO membership if it were held in the near future. Some 22.7% said they would abstain.

The poll was conducted from December 16 until December 20, 2016 in all regions of Ukraine, except Crimea and the occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, 2,018 of respondents, aged over 18 years, were interviewed. The theoretical margin of sampling error does not exceed 2.3%.