Almost Half of Men in Ukraine Ready to Join Territorial Defence Forces

Forty-nine percent of men in Ukraine are ready to join the territorial defence forces. At the same time, only 18% of women express such readiness as evidenced by the results of the sociological study “Awareness and readiness of citizens to participate in territorial defence” conducted by the Ukrainian Institute for the Future. The sample size was 2,400 respondents.

On a regional basis, residents of the western and central regions are relatively more willing to join the territorial defence forces – 36% and 37%, respectively. At the same time, residents of the regions, which are in greater need of the creation of brigades numbering 3,000-5,000 people for security reasons, including Donbas, are much less ready for this as only 21% are willing and 71% are reluctant to join forces.

At the same time, representatives of the 35-44 age group express the highest readiness among all the generations: 37% of them are ready to join the territorial defence forces. On the other hand, young people under the age of 24 show readiness almost identical to the older generation.

In general, 45% of respondents support the creation of territorial defence forces and a third (30%) oppose it. One in four (25%) is undecided.

At the same time, there are some differences in the answers of men and women to this question: half of the men polled (50%) support this step and a third oppose it. On the other hand, 40% of women favour the creation of the territorial defence forces and 28% oppose it. The share of undecided women is almost twice as high.

Natalia Tolub