Some 44% of the survey’s respondents said Russian-Ukrainian ties "would normalize but would never be friendly again," while another 35% said the two countries would be able to restore friendly and allied relations "sooner or later."

MOSCOW, February 20. /TASS/. Most Russians (79%) expect to restore relations with Ukraine, a poll carried out by the All-Russia Public Opinion Research Center uncovered on Tuesday.

One in ten respondents said, "Relations will continue deteriorating as a result of Ukraine’s desire to achieve closer integration with the West."

Some 40% of Russians describe the current relations with the neighboring country as tense, most notably young people (47% among respondents at the age of 18-24). Some 22% call them hostile, while another 13% and 11% say they are frigid and neutral, respectively.

Almost half of those polled said that bilateral relations over the past year have remained unchanged, while 34% said they have been only worsening.

Most Russians (75%) said Ukraine came up short after the Maidan events, which had culminated in the February 2014 coup d’etat. Only 2% of Russians said Ukraine gained any advantage.

The nation’s leading polling agency conducted the survey on February 15-16 based on phone interviews with 2,000 respondents. The margin of error does not exceed 2.2% at the 95% confidence level.