"Some 52 percent of respondents expressed readiness to defend the territorial integrity of Ukraine, using deadly force, in case of the relevant threat (there were 54 percent of such respondents in 2017, 33 percent in 2012)," say findings of a poll conducted by the Rating Sociological Group, Censor.NET reports citing UNIAN.

Most of such respondents live in the west of Ukraine (63 percent), while half of those polled in the center and in the south spoke in favor of the statement.

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Meanwhile, the relative majority in the east (55 percent) said they were not ready to act with lethal force (35 percent were ready, 10 percent could not answer). At the same time, males and wealthy respondents are more patriotic.

The survey was conducted on Sept. 27-Oct. 4 among the population aged 18 and above in the form of face-to-face interviews. The sample of 2,000 respondents is representative of the population by age, gender, region and type of a populated locality. The margin of error is no more than 2.2 percent.

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