One in Five Ukrainians took part in EuroMaidan

According to a survey carried out by the Democratic Initiatives Foundation [DFI], around 20% of Ukraine’s population took part in the protests against the previous regime known as EuroMaidan.

Of these 5% were involved in the Kyiv protests; 6% in other cities or inhabited areas.  A further 9% helped protesters by providing food and other things needed, like warm clothes, or by donating money.

There was a sharp divide in the country however, with the greatest level of support in the West of Ukraine, were 7% took part in the Kyiv protests; 26% in protests in other places; and 29.5% provided help to protesters;

In the central region 9.5% took part in the Kyiv EuroMaidan and a further 2% in other places; with 7.5% helping protesters.

In other regions the figure was significantly smaller: 

2%  in the Southern region

3%  in the Eastern  (Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhya)

3%  in Donbas  (Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts).

The main other distinguishing factor was level of education with more of the protesters having a higher education (25% against 15% secondary specialized; 14% secondary; and not completed secondary -7%).

In terms of age, only the age group from 60% up were found to have been significantly less involved.

In terms of gender, there was a difference mainly in Kyiv where 7% of men took part, only 3.5% of women.  That difference was doubtless because of the heightened risk of violence and number of titushki or hired thugs around. 

DFI found certain views which were shared by a far greater percentage of Maidan protesters, than for the country as a whole. 

Among those who took part in protests in Kyiv 76% would vote in a referendum for Ukraine to join NATO.  Among those involved in the protests outside Kyiv 90% would be in favour, against 44% of the entire population.

24% of EuroMaidan supporters were inclined to support taking the law into ones own hands to achieve justice and to support free sale of weapons against 11% and 10%, respectively, of the entire population.  

There was a regional divide over possible ways of viewing EuroMaidan.  If overall throughout the country 37.9% of respondents called it a conscious struggle by citizens who had united to defend their rights, this was as high as 70% in the West of Ukraine, and only 3.2% in Donbas.  On the other hand, both southern and eastern regions had relatively high scores on this [20.1% and 22.3%, respectively] with the figure for the central region – 47.9%.

Whereas in the country as a whole, only 15.5% saw EuroMaidan as a ‘state coup carried out with the support of the West”, in Donbas the figure was 50.7%   In Ukraine overall 17.2% considered EuroMaidan to have been ‘a spontaneous protest by the population’, while in Donbas only 7.8% saw it as spontaneous.

From the report on the DFI website