Survey Shows Continued Opposition to Ukraine’s Travel Ban on Men

A recent survey inside Ukraine by Human Security Lab showed continued overall opposition to the ban on civilian men 18-60 from crossing the border to safety.

The survey, carried out by global consulting firm RIWI, reached a random sample of adult internet users inside Ukraine. Weighted against the census to ensure representation by gender, age and income, fewer than half of respondents (43%) said they supported the current law, with the other 57% percent split between outright opposition to the law (27%) and “a different view than either option” (30%).

Women are especially unlikely to believe that men should be required to stay, with only 40% choosing that option compared to 47% of men; as are younger Ukrainians, Ukrainians living in front-line areas in the east, very poor or very wealthy Ukrainians, and those either without college degrees or with advanced degrees.

The survey follows an earlier identical survey in July 2022, when the war was relatively new. According to Human Security Lab Director Charli Carpenter, “We wanted to see whether public opinion had become more accepting of the restriction on men’s movement as the war intensified, but it continues to be largely opposed to forcing men to stay.”

The original survey included 692 open-ended comments, which were described in a Foreign Policy article last November and will be further analyzed in a new report on the humanitarian and strategic impacts of the travel ban due out from Human Security Lab this month.