IPIS: Almost 38 percent of the Respondents Think that “Someone Else” was to Blame for the Russian Military Invasion of Ukraine

The IPIS public opinion poll showed that 21,9 percent of the respondents think that Russia is exclusively responsible for the military actions, 4,1 percent think that Ukraine is responsible, while 16,8 percent think that both Russia and Ukraine are responsible. In addition, 19,4 percent of the respondents cannot determine who is to blame, while a record number of 37,8 percent think that “someone else” is to blame. The highest percentage of disapproval of the Russian military aggression in Ukraine was noted with the followers of DUI, AA, SDSM, Alternativa, VMRO-DPMNE and BESA (44,4 percent), while most of the respondents who approve the Russian military aggression in Ukraine are followers of Levica

 

 

More than half of the interviewed persons do not understand Russia’s motives to initiate military actions in Ukraine, while 27,4 percent do.

Concerning the question who was responsible for the military actions, 21,9 percent deem that Russia was exclusively to blame, 4,1 percent deem that Ukraine was to blame, while 16,8 percent deem that both Russia and Ukraine were to blame equally.

Further, 19,4 percent of the respondents cannot determine who was to blame, while a record number of 37,8 percent think that someone else – without identifying who – was to blame.

These are just some of the answers of the survey conducted by the Institute for Political Research (IPIS), as part of the publication “Positions and Perceptions about the War in Ukraine (Analysis and public opinion poll)” whose author is Aleksandar Spasenovski, Associate Professor of the Law Faculty.

By cross-referencing the replies of the respondents with their party affiliation, the opinion poll showed that they can be differentiated into two groups. Respondents who do not approve the Russian military aggression in Ukraine belong to the first group. The highest level of non-approval of the Russian aggression in Ukraine can be noted with the followers of DUI (64,3 percent), followed by affilates of AA (61,85 percent), SDSM (55,8 percent), Alternativa (53,3 percent), VMRO-DPMNE (52,6 percent) and BESA (44,4 percent. The second group, on the other hand, consisted of respondents who approved Russian military aggression in Ukraine, and the highest level of approval came from the followers of the party Levica (56,1 percent).

Concerning the second question, most of the respondents evidently thought that “someone else” was responsible for the Russian military invasion of Ukraine.

The answers to the next question: Do you understand the Russian motives to initiate military actions in Ukraine or not? – imposed the conclusion that the perceptions of the respondents fully overlapped in accordance with their party affiliation, with the public proclamations of party positions and the positions of their leaders related to the military actions.

Subsequently, more than 50 percent of the members or followers of SDSM, VMRO-DPMNE, DUI, Alternativa and Alliance for the Albanians responded that they did not understand the Russian motives for initiating military invasion. More than 40 percent of the members/ followers also said that they had no understanding. On the other hand, 56 percent of the interviewed members/followers of Levica stated that they understood, while 34 percent said that they had no understanding.

61,2 percent of the respondents stated that they did not justify the support in weapons and equipment that North Macedonia provided to Ukraine, while 26,1 percent said that they do justify the support.

The comparison of the answers from the first part of the research with those from this part indicate that the citizens condemned the Russian aggression in Ukraine, but they were quite reserved about the interference of North Macedonia through the support provided in weapons and equipment for Ukraine, as well as with the economic sanctions against Russia, informs the analysis.

The highest level of justification came from the followers of the Albanian political parties – Alternativa, DUI, AA and BESA, while the greatest opposition came from Levica (90 percent), VMRO-DPMNE (77 percent) and SDSM (53,7 percent), regarding the assistance provided in weapons.

High 63,9 percent of the respondents believed that the war in Ukraine made a big impact on the increased electricity prices in the country, opposed to 13,2 percent who believed that there was no impact or the impact was insignificant.

In addition, high 69,2 percent of the respondents thought that the war in Ukraine made a big impact on the increased fuel prices in the country, opposed to 12,9 percent who thought that there was no impact or that the impact was insignificant.

Finally, high 67,6 percent of the respondents deemed that the war in Ukraine had made a big impact on the inflation in the country, opposed to 14,6 percent who deemed that there was no impact, or that the impact was insignificant, pinpointed the results of the survey.

The next question referred to the outcome of the war in Ukraine. 34,5 percent of the respondents trusted that the war in Ukraine would come to an end with relinquishing parts of the Ukrainian territory to Russia, which was the largest group; followed by 15,3 percent who believed in full military victory of Russia; 10,1 percent thought that Russia will fully retrieve from Ukraine, and 8,1 percent trusted that there would be full military victory of Ukraine. Almost 30 percent of the respondents had no answer to this question.

When the answers of the respondents were cross-referenced with their party affilation, the conclusion derived was that all respondents – regardless of which party they follow – mostly believed that the war in Ukraine would be the reason for the World to deal with much more instability and military conflicts in the future.

 

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This article has been produced within the project Promoting Access to Reliable News to Counter Disinformation, implemented by the Metamorphosis Foundation. The article, originally published by Truthmeter,, is made possible by the support of the American non-profit foundation NED (National Endowment for Democracy). The content of this article is the responsibility of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of Metamorphosis, NED or their partners.

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