Nearly half of Ukrainians want presidential candidates to propose solutions to the Donbass problem

Illustration photo: TASS

According to the TASS news agency, more than 40% of Ukrainians are ready to follow the debates between the two presidential candidates Vladimir Zelensky and Petro Poroshenko, expecting the Donbass issue to be the focus of this event. That is the content of a poll conducted by the Ilko Kucheriv Foundation for Democratic Initiatives and the International Institute of Sociology of Kiev of Ukraine said.

According to the survey results, if debates between the two candidates running for the presidential seat take place, 42% of all Ukrainians will definitely watch them on television, while 31% of respondents said they are ready to pay attention to the debates if they are interesting and substantial.

In addition, 42% of those surveyed said that bringing peace to Donbass is the most important thing. Another 40% said that these are the country's economic problems and the fight against corruption. Survey participants also said that candidates should clarify their development program for the next 5 years (39%), and outline the most urgent problems they will solve if elected.

Additionally, 73.5% of respondents said the two candidates moving on to the second round should participate in public debates with each other.

The nationwide survey in Ukraine involved 1,600 people and was conducted from March 20 to 26. For the Donetsk and Lugansk regions, the poll was conducted only in areas controlled by Kiev. The margin of error does not exceed 2%.

The Ukrainian presidential election was held on March 31. With 100% of the votes counted, Servant of the People party leader Vladimir Zelensky led with 30.24% of the votes, followed by incumbent President Petro Poroshenko with 15.95%. Since no candidate won more than 50% of the votes, the two candidates with the highest number of votes will enter the second round on April 21.