An absolute majority of Ukrainians (59.5%) believe that Ukraine can achieve victory in the war with the Russian Federation by combining military action and diplomacy, whereas 15.2% of respondents consider a purely military path to victory possible for Ukraine, and 14.9% consider a purely diplomatic path viable, according to a study by the Sociopolis research company conducted from September 16 to September 21, 2026.
Some 5.9% of respondents believe that Ukraine will not be able to achieve victory in the war through any of these methods, while 4.5% were unable to decide on an answer to this question.
At the same time, a relative majority of those surveyed (46.4%) believe that Ukraine's most important goal in the war should be the preservation of independence and sovereignty, even if it entails territorial losses. Restoring control over occupied territories is viewed as Ukraine's most important goal by 25.8% of respondents, while 14.7% cite inflicting a military defeat on or weakening the Russian Federation as the primary objective.
According to the press service of the Sociopolis research company, negative assessments of bilateral negotiations between US and Russian delegations, as well as between US and Ukrainian delegations, outweigh positive ones. Some 50.7% of respondents view the holding of such negotiations entirely or somewhat negatively, whereas 40.1% view them entirely or somewhat positively. Another 9.3% of respondents were unable to form an opinion on the aforementioned negotiations. The survey was conducted using the CATI (Computer-Assisted Telephone Interviewing) method based on a random sample of mobile phone numbers among 1,002 residents of government-controlled areas of Ukraine aged 18 and older. The theoretical margin of sampling error (at a 95% confidence level and excluding the design effect) does not exceed 3.1% for figures close to 50% and 1.4% for figures close to 5% and 95%.
