On December 6, Russia’s First state channel’d Time Will Tell daily political talk show presented fake results of a real sociological poll that was conducted in Ukraine. The show’s host Artem Sheinin said that 72.5% of Ukrainians said the country must agree to compromises in order to achieve peace. Meanwhile the real results of a poll conducted by the Democratic Initiatives research center together with the Kyiv International Sociology Institute last November show a completely different picture with only 14% of Ukrainians saying that for the sake of peace it is worth agreeing to any compromise, while 58.5% said it is worth agreeing to a compromise for the sake of peace, but not any compromise.
Artem Sheinin said that 72.5% of those who participated in the poll said in order to achieve peace it is necessary to compromise with Russia and the leaders of the self-proclaimed people’s republics in Donetsk and Luhansk (video starting at 38:00).
Even though Sheinin refers to a real poll, the data he presents is fake.
Democratic Initiatives and the Kyiv International Sociological Institute conducted a poll in 110 Ukrainian towns November -19, including the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in which 2041 Ukrainians participated.
According to the poll Ways of achieving peace in Donbas: public sentiments, expectations, warnings, 14% it is worth agreeing to any compromise for the sake of peace, while 58% said it is worth agreeing to compromise for the sake of peace, but not all compromises. A willingness to compromise, but not agree to any compromise for peace is a prevalent sentiment in all Ukrainian regions, Western (57%), central (5%), Southern (60%) eastern (67%). Southern and eastern regions are more willing to accept any compromise for the sake of peace, southern (24%), eastern (18%) with central (10%) and western (13%) regions less likely to do so.
The 72.5% of Ukrainians that Sheinin claims are willing to make any compromise for the sake of peace in eastern Ukraine is a figure invented by the talk show host, they are not featured in the November poll at all.
