(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - Most people in Ukraine are against joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), according to a poll by FOM-Ukraine. 58 per cent of respondents would vote against NATO accession if a referendum on this matter took place, while 24 per cent would vote in favour.

NATO was originally formed in 1949 as an agreement of collaboration designed to prevent a possible attack from the Soviet Union on North America or Western Europe during the Cold War. In March 2004, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia officially joined NATO.

In 2006, Viktor Yanukovych’s Party of Regions (PR) secured 186 seats in the Supreme Council. Yanukovych eventually became prime minister in a coalition government with the Socialist Party (SPU) and the Communist Party (KPU). After a long political stalemate and disagreements between the president and prime minister, a new legislative ballot took place in September 2007.

Final election results released in October gave the "orange forces"—including the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc and president Viktor Yushchenko’s People’s Union-Our Ukraine (NS-NU)—228 seats, while Yanukovych and his Communist allies took control of 202 seats. In December, Tymoshenko was ratified as prime minister, with the support of 225 lawmakers.

Last month, Ukraine’s governing coalition split in great part due to disagreements over a conflict between Georgia and Russia triggered by Georgian armed forces in the breakaway province of South Ossetia. In the days following the incursion, Yushchenko asked the government to fiercely condemn Russia’s actions in Georgia, but Tymoshenko refused to take a strong stance against Russia. Yushchenko left the coalition as a result.

In April, U.S. president George W. Bush endorsed Ukraine’s bid to join NATO.

On Oct. 6, Patriarch Filaret of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Kiev Patriarchy said that his country should join both NATO and the European Union (EU), saying, "We can borrow much from the EU, for example democracy and modern technologies. At the same time Ukraine can give something to Europe, namely spirituality, which European countries are catastrophically losing. (...) Ukraine must also join NATO because we need to secure ourselves after abandoning nuclear weapons, and considering recent international developments, our territorial integrity may be jeopardized by Russia."

Polling Data

How would you vote if a referendum on Ukraine joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) took place today?

Source: FOM-Ukraine
Methodology: Interviews with 2,000 Ukrainian adults, conducted from Sept. 12 to Sept. 26, 2008. Margin of error is 2.2 per cent.

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