More than half of the Ukrainian population as a whole expressed their readiness to defend the territorial integrity of the country with arms in case of an appropriate threat, as evidenced by the data of a poll conducted by the Rating sociological group in September.

According to the results of the social research published on the Rating website on Thursday, 54% of respondents expressed their readiness to defend the territorial integrity of Ukraine with weapons in the event of a corresponding threat - this figure is almost two times higher than in 2012. This idea is supported by two-thirds of the residents of the country's center and west, while half of the population living in the south, are ready to do it. Some 52% of respondents in the east of the country said they are not ready to defend Ukraine with weapons in their hands, while 26% are ready, and 22% are undecided.

Some 59% of respondents support the establishment of the state holiday of the Day of Ukrainian Defender on October 14. Almost the same number (56%) do not support the idea of canceling the Day of the Fatherland Defender on February 23. The first are more in the west of the country, the second - in the south and east.

The survey was conducted on September 20-29, 2017, using a personal, formalized interview (face-to-face), totaling 2,000 respondents (18 years and over). The sample is representative of age, sex, region and type of settlement. The error of representativeness of the study is not more than 2.2%.