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Over half of Ukrainians call Russians brotherly nation — poll

The sociologists said the poll’s results depend on a particular region

KIEV, December 16. /TASS/. Every second Ukrainian considers Russians as a brotherly nation, an opinion poll conducted by Ukraine’s Razumkov Center for Economic and Political Studies showed on Friday.

"Some 51.1% call Russians a brotherly nation, 33.8% do not think so and 15.2% of respondents are undecided," the pollster said.

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Patriarch Kirill says believes relations between Russia and Ukraine will soon be restored

The sociologists said the poll’s results depend on a particular region. "Russians are considered as brothers by 87.1% in the country’s east, 60.5% in the south and 41.2% in the central region, and the lowest figure is in western Ukraine - only 28%," the poll showed.

The poll was conducted on November 18-23 among 2,000 respondents in all regions of Ukraine, except for the Donbass territory not controlled by Kiev. A margin of error does not exceed 2.3%.

Another opinion poll conducted by the Razumkov Center showed that more than half of Ukrainians called against severing diplomatic ties with Russia. More than one third of Ukrainians were against Ukraine’s joining the European Union.

Politicians who came to power after the February 2014 state coup in Ukraine took up a clear anti-Russian stance. Ukraine has reduced trade with Russia and launched an active anti-Russian media campaign. The parliament backed a range of laws limiting the rights of the Russian language, the sales of "wrong" books and introduced sanctions against Russian performers and politicians.

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