73.4% of respondents see Ukraine as unitary state, 43% consider events in southeast covert aggression by Russia – Committee of Voters of Ukraine

Kyiv, May 21 (Interfax-Ukraine) – A total of 73.4% of the respondents surveyed by a number of Ukrainian research centers prefer to see Ukraine as a unitary state, while 15.8% supported federalization and 10.8% refused to answer.

The research was conducted through May 8-13 upon the order of the Committee of Voters of Ukraine (CVU). Its results were made public by representatives of SOCIS center, the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) and Rating Sociological Group on Tuesday in Interfax-Ukraine news agency.

"Almost the whole of Ukraine supports a unitary state. The numbers of federalization supporters have risen in the east, i.e. 16.4% in Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhia regions, 19.5% in the south, 25.5% in Kharkiv region and 44% in Donbas," Rating Sociological Group director Oleksiy Antypovych said.

He also said there had recently been an increase of unitary state supporters in Donbas – up to 37.7%. According to Antypovych it's because people are afraid of weapons and criminals in the streets.

According to the survey, the majority of the respondents consider a takeover of administrative buildings and law enforcement agencies in eastern Ukraine covert aggression by Russia, and 22.9% believe it's a terrorist act.

"Almost 22% say it's a popular uprising, 43% – covert aggression by Russia," Antypovych said, adding that 14.4% remained undecided.

As a result of the armed clashes in the east, respondents from almost all over Ukraine talk about covert aggression by Russia, with the exception in southeastern regions, where only a third of the respondents support this version of events.

"There are already answers that it's a terrorist act, while almost 40% in Kharkiv region and over 50% in Donbas talk about an uprising," he said.

According to Antypovych, 37.3% of the respondents believe that the government must negotiate with people taking over buildings in southeastern Ukraine, 32.1% – stand for both negotiations and using force, and 28.3% – for using force alone.

A total of 38.2% of those surveyed stand for Ukrainian being the only state language in the country, while Russian can be used in everyday life, just as other national minorities languages are. Making both languages national is supported by 30.7%, and 27.3% think that Russian can become an official language in certain regions of the country with Ukrainian being a state language.

A total of 6,200 people over 18 years old from all the regions of Ukraine (except for Crimea) were surveyed by personal interview during the research. The margin of error doesn't exceed 0.8%