“The share of Ukrainians who consider joining NATO as the best option for security decreased from 55% to 38%”, — write: www.pravda.com.ua
Source: survey results of the “Democratic Initiatives” Foundation named after Ilka Kucheriva together with the sociological service of the Razumkov Center in the period from December 5 to 16, 2025, reports “European Truth”
Details: As noted, signals from some of Ukraine’s international partners, primarily the United States, weaken the orientation of Ukrainians towards NATO as the best option for guaranteeing security for Ukraine, despite the fact that the relative majority of the population still considers NATO to be the best of the alternatives.
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Compared to December last year, the share of the population that called joining NATO the best option for guaranteeing security decreased from 55% to 38%.
The decline in support for NATO is not accompanied by an increase in sympathy for the non-aligned status as such.
Instead, there is a redistribution of expectations towards alternative, less ambitious or more flexible security models. In particular, over the year, the share of those who place their hopes on strategic defense cooperation agreements with individual NATO member countries has grown significantly (from 9% to 15%). Support for Ukraine’s neutral status, but under the condition of international security guarantees, also increased (from 12% to 16%), as well as for the option to rely exclusively on its own defense capabilities, even without external guarantees (from 3% to 7%).
“These shifts indicate not so much a change in value orientations as a growing doubt about the realism of Ukraine’s rapid accession to NATO in the conditions of a protracted war and ambiguous signals from international partners,” sociologists explain.
Another study showed that the willingness of European leaders to continue supporting Ukraine even despite the US “reversal” led to an increase in trust in the European Union, while at the same time confidence in NATO among Ukrainians has dropped noticeably.
Read more in the article “EvroPravda”: There is worse than Trump. How Ukrainians’ trust in world leaders has changed, and what about the EU and NATO.