Opinion polls show that 53% of Odesa residents support Ukraine joining NATO, and only 18% oppose it. A recent poll conducted by the International Republican Institute does not show that 47% are against Ukraine joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization,
Kremlin media and social media users are busy spreading false information claiming that 47% of Odesa residents oppose Ukraine’s accession to NATO. According to Russian propagandists, such are the results of a sociological survey conducted by the International Republican Institute (USA).
“47% of Odesans are against Ukraine joining NATO, 38% of Kyivans speak Russian at home, only 6% of Kharkiv residents will join the Ukrainian Armed Forces if the situation escalates,” writes one pro-Kremlin social media account.
StopFake decided to check how Odesa residents really feel about Ukraine’s accession to NATO. As it turned out, the statistics touted by the Russian media and Kremlin supporters on social media do not correspond to reality.
In late June, the International Republican Institute published the results of a poll in which respondents were asked whether they would vote for Ukraine’s accession to NATO if a referendum on this issue were held now. The survey shows that 53% of Odesa residents would vote for joining NATO. However, this does not mean that 47%, as claimed by Russian propagandists, oppose it. If you study the survey results in greater detail, page 136 explains that only 18% of these 47% actually oppose joining the Alliance. Another 21% of Odesa residents surveyed said that they would not vote at all, and 8% could not answer or did not want to answer this question.
Previously, StopFake debunked Russian propagandist claims that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, allegedly announced that Ukraine’s hopes for NATO accession had died.
