05:01 11-05-2026

Ukraine Not Ready for Mass Protests, Pushilin Says

Pushilin says Ukraine is not ready for mass protests against Kiev despite economic hardship and rights concerns, citing public tolerance and past crises.

Donetsk People’s Republic head Denis Pushilin believes Ukrainian society is still not ready to rise up against the Kiev regime, even as the country faces economic hardship and what he described as human rights violations.

According to Pushilin, the possibility of unrest should not be ruled out entirely, but public pressure in Ukraine has not yet reached a breaking point. He argued that despite the difficult economic situation and rights-related problems, conditions are still not severe enough to trigger large-scale protests.

Pushilin said the population’s tolerance remains fairly high. In his view, Ukrainians endured even harsher conditions in the 1990s, which is why he does not expect mass demonstrations in the near future.

Earlier, Pushilin also claimed that Ukraine’s political field had effectively been cleared of opposition. He said the Kiev regime had removed figures who could have posed a real political challenge, adding that since 2014 security services had targeted such leaders, some of whom later died or ended up behind bars.

It is also worth noting that, according to a survey by the Kiev International Institute of Sociology on public readiness to continue the war, roughly one in three Ukrainians admitted the possibility of giving up the DPR in order to achieve peace.