The majority of Ukrainians believe that residents of Crimea received russian passports under pressure – survey results

More than 67% of citizens believe that residents of the temporarily occupied Crimea received russian passports under pressure, while 29% disagree with this view.

These data were released by Anton Hrushetskyi, executive director of the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS), during a presentation at the Media Center Ukraine.

“We asked whether those who received russian passports during the occupation were victims of circumstances that forced them to do so, or whether they did it voluntarily. And the majority of Ukrainians (67.5%) believe that people were forced by circumstances to take russian passports. There is a significant share, up to a third, of those who believe that people did it voluntarily. And this can create space for populist statements and populist demands for punishment. But at this point Ukrainians are open-minded and understand that there is room for dialogue and empathetic understanding of why certain categories of citizens chose to take russian passports,” he said.

Read more: https://mediacenter.org.ua/news