75% of Ukrainians open to negotiations with Russia to end war – survey

A September poll by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) shows that 75% of Ukrainians are open to holding negotiations with Russia now to end the war. Meanwhile, the pollsters stress that this does not mean support for making concessions to Russia.

Source: a survey conducted by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology on 12–21 September 2026

Details: Respondents were asked: "Are you open to holding negotiations with Russia now to end the war, or not?"

A total of 75% said they were open to such negotiations, while 21% were not. A further 4% were undecided.

The pollsters note that the distribution of responses has remained virtually unchanged since February 2025. At that time, 74% of Ukrainians were open to negotiations, 19% were not, and 7% were undecided.

Thus, the proportion of those open to negotiations changed by 1 percentage point, while the proportion opposed rose by 2 percentage points. The share of undecided respondents fell by 3 percentage points. KIIS describes the results of the two polls as virtually identical.

The pollsters specifically emphasise that the question concerned only whether negotiations should take place, not whether Ukraine should make possible concessions to Russia.

Quote: "It is incorrect to interpret this question as a measure of support for concessions in Russia's favour."

Details: Commenting on the findings, KIIS Executive Director Anton Hrushetskyi said Ukrainians remain resilient while also being open to difficult compromises in order to achieve an acceptable peace.

He said such compromises must not turn into unilateral concessions or resemble Ukraine's capitulation.

Quote from Hryshetskyi: "Despite the intensification of Russian terror against the civilian population and the not always sufficiently decisive and supported by real actions reaction of our Western partners, Ukrainians are ready to bear the burden of war and continue until an acceptable peace is achieved."

For reference: KIIS conducted its nationwide Omnibus survey on 12–21 September 2026. Questions concerning war and peace were included at the request of the NGO Forum.

Using telephone interviews, the pollsters surveyed 1,002 Ukrainian citizens aged 18 and over who were living in territory controlled by the Ukrainian government at the time of the survey. The sample was compiled through random generation of mobile phone numbers, with the results subsequently statistically weighted.

The survey did not include residents of the occupied territories or Ukrainian citizens who left the country after 24 February 2022. However, respondents did include internally displaced people from the occupied territories.

Under normal circumstances, with a 95% confidence level and taking the design effect into account, the statistical margin of error for a sample of this size does not exceed 4.1% for figures close to 50%, 3.5% for figures close to 25%, 2.5% for figures close to 10% and 1.8% for figures close to 5%.

KIIS notes that under wartime conditions, possible systematic deviations must be added to the formal margin of error. Nevertheless, the institute considers the results sufficiently representative for analysing public attitudes. All percentages have been rounded to whole numbers.

Previously: Meanwhile, a KIIS poll conducted on 12–24 February found that 70% of Ukrainians did not believe that negotiations involving Russia and the United States on ending the war in Ukraine would lead to a lasting peace.

Background:

• On 4 October, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine was ready to take part in a trilateral meeting with Russia and the United States at the technical level, which the Americans have proposed holding by the end of October.
• Media reports indicate that Türkiye and the United Nations will organise new talks between Russia and Ukraine on a ceasefire in the Black Sea, seeking to bring together disparate efforts to protect grain supplies amid a sharp rise in global food prices.
• As European Pravda reported, US President Donald Trump said he had asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to scale back strikes on Russian oil refineries and claimed that Zelenskyy had agreed.
• Zelenskyy previously said that during closed-door talks with Trump, there had been no attempts to pressure Kyiv into unilaterally halting attacks on oil refineries and other facilities of this kind.
• US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that achieving an energy ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine would be difficult, but Washington would try to do so.

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Originally reported by Ukrainska Pravda by Anastasia Prots. Read the full story at the source.