Just one day after the governing coalition’s declaration of opposition to NATO membership, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signaled his support by announcing a visit to Ukraine in May. The strongest opposition emanated from Russia, where more than seven-in-ten (72%) opposed Ukraine’s admission into NATO. However, Germans and Italians disagreed - 53% in Germany and 42% of Italians opposed Ukraine’s membership in the military alliance. Majorities in Poland (64%), Lithuania (58%), France (54%) and nearly half in Bulgaria (49%), Czech Republic (46%), and Spain (46%) favored Ukraine joining NATO. Outside of Ukraine, many European publics supported the country’s entry into NATO. And in the West a majority (59%) favored their country becoming part of NATO. In terms of regional groupings, respondents living in the East (72%) and South (60%) - where the percentage of Russians tends to be higher than elsewhere in the country - were more likely to oppose joining NATO than were those living in the Central region (51%). Ethnic Russians (74%) were far more likely to oppose admission to NATO than ethnic Ukrainians (46%). Views of membership in NATO vary by ethnicity and region. Moreover, given the opposition to membership, it is not surprising that about half of Ukrainians (51%) gave NATO an unfavorable rating.
A September 2009 survey by the Pew Research Center’s Global Attitudes Project, found that half of Ukrainians (51%) opposed their country’s admission to NATO, while only 28% favored such a step. However, Yanukovych’s move to ban Ukraine from joining NATO is not without a base of public support. The new president’s opponents in parliament argue that this new strategy may result in pushing Ukraine back into the Russian “sphere of influence” and out of the European fold. Ukraine’s new governing coalition recently announced its intention to pass a law against joining military alliances, which will fulfill Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych’s campaign promise to prevent Ukraine from becoming a member in NATO. By Kathleen Holzwart Sprehe, Research Associate, Pew Global Attitudes Project
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