Atlantic Council: What Ukrainians really think

Фото: Depositphotos

Ukraine is a complex country, experiencing a period of change. Many believe that the statements and positions held by the Ukrainian government and civil society directly reflect the point of view and position of the general public, the analysis says Atlantic council.

However, an analysis of the results of many nationwide public opinion polls - during which they touched upon such topics as corruption, the health care system, migration, and Russia - shows that the Ukrainian public is much less optimistic and less focused on the West than the country's leaders. In addition, there is a huge gap in perception between residents of different regions of the country and between representatives of different generations.
We analyzed the results of a number of public opinion polls, which allowed us to draw key conclusions from 10.

1. Are we Europeans? According to a survey conducted by the Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Foundation (FDI) in June 2017, 38% of Ukrainians consider themselves to be Europeans, while 55% do not consider themselves to be such. Only 57% of Ukrainian citizens support the idea of ​​their country's entry into the European Union, and only 43,2% support Ukraine’s entry into NATO.

2. Ukrainians like Russians more than Ukrainians like Russians. One of the most interesting results of the survey, conducted by the Kiev International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) in December 2016, was a relatively high percentage of Ukrainians who positively relate to Russia - 40%, and this figure remained unchanged throughout the year. According to the results of an earlier KIIS survey, 67% of Ukrainians favored Russians, but only 8% of Ukrainians favored the Russian government. And these 8% are mostly residents of Donbass, although the survey was conducted only in the territories that were under the control of the Ukrainian government. According to the Russian Levada Center, Russians are less favorable to Ukrainians. They treat Ukraine more negatively than practically any other country: in the 2016 year, according to Russians, Ukraine ranked second in the list of enemies of Russia - it stood after the United States and before Turkey.

3. Opinions of residents of the occupied territories of Donbass change. According to a survey conducted in July 2017, 31% of respondents in government-controlled areas in the Luhansk region and 36% of respondents in government-controlled areas in the Donetsk region believe that Ukraine should not join any alliances or blocs - neither the European Union nor in the Customs Union headed by Russia.

But 27% of the residents of the Luhansk region still support the idea of ​​Ukraine joining the Customs Union, and in the Donetsk region this idea was supported by 19% of respondents. 30% of respondents in the Donetsk region support Ukraine’s entry into NATO, and in the Luhansk region only 10% answered this way.

Meanwhile, five years ago, according to the results of a survey conducted by the sociological group Rating, the idea of ​​Ukraine’s entry into NATO was supported by less than 7% of Donbass residents. In Donbass, the level of support for Ukraine’s entry into NATO has increased, but it is still much lower than in other areas of the country.

54% of respondents believe that the assistance that the international community provides Ukraine in its conflict with Russia is insufficient, and 15% of respondents have never heard of any assistance from the international community. 15% of Ukrainians consider it essential. The idea of ​​deploying an international peacekeeping mission in the Donbass is becoming more popular, and now it is supported by 60% of respondents.

4. Half of internally displaced people want to go home. According to the results of the March KIIS survey, about half of the internally displaced people who left the Donbass want to return home. 34% do not want to go home, and 26% believe that they will have to return against their will due to lack of work. Interestingly, more than half of the respondents have a stable job, and 35% of all respondents work in the same companies in which they worked before the move. Meanwhile, the mood of the local population is far from positive: 44% expects a worsening of the situation due to the influx of internally displaced persons.

5. Most Ukrainian migrant workers want to live in Ukraine. At the end of 2016, 77% of Ukrainians who worked abroad over the past five years had seasonal work, and only 15% worked on a permanent basis. Most of these 15% are women and highly educated professionals. Those who worked in the European Union had a more stable job than those who worked in Russia. Ukrainians most often left for work in Poland (36%), Russia (25%), the Czech Republic and Germany (in 5%), and also in Italy (3%).

According to a survey conducted by the Rating group in September 2017, 61% of Ukrainians do not want to go abroad for permanent residence. 35% of respondents answered that they would like to leave forever - in 2016, 30% answered this way. Those who are willing to emigrate are mostly young people between the ages of 18 and 35. Interestingly, 65% of respondents said that they would like to return to Ukraine after working abroad.

6. Visa-free status of Ukraine in the European Union is not clear to everyone. According to a study conducted by the FDI in June 2017, 35% of respondents do not know anything about the rules for visa-free status, 50% answered that they knew something, but they did not specifically study this question, and only 14% know well how this system works. Only 34% of Ukrainians have foreign passports, and only 7% of Ukrainians have biometric passports that are necessary for visa-free entry to the Schengen zone.

7. Health care reform - a sore point. According to the results of the study of the Rating group, 76% of respondents are not satisfied or not fully satisfied with the quality of medical care in the country. Only 31% of respondents supported health care reform, 33% supported it partially, and 28% did not support it.

8. According to the Ukrainians, the most corrupt are medical institutions, the parliament and the courts. 44% Ukrainians believe corruption is the most serious problem in Ukraine, as evidenced by the results of the FDI study. 36% consider it a pretty serious problem. Ukrainians consider the most corrupt services to be medical institutions (82%), parliament (82%), courts (82%), government (75%), prosecutor's office (75%) and political parties (74%).

9. Most Ukrainians trust volunteer organizations. According to a study conducted in October 2017, by the Razumkov Center, volunteer organizations enjoy the greatest confidence of Ukrainians - 67% of Ukrainians trust them, and this figure has significantly increased since 2014. 64% of respondents trust the church, 57% trust the Ukrainian army. 81% of respondents do not trust parliament and government officials.

According to the KIIS survey, the Ukrainians are most concerned about the war in the east of the country (72%), the low standard of living (60%) and the economic situation in Ukraine (47%).

1. Ukrainian "Z generation" does not trust politicians, wants the government to eradicate corruption and for Ukraine to join the European Union. According to a survey called “Youth of Ukraine 2017” conducted by the New Europe center among young people from 14 to 29 years, 74% of young Ukrainians have a deep distrust of the country's political leaders. 70% responded that their main requirement for the government is to eradicate corruption and crime. Economic development (68%) and reduction of unemployment (66%) were also among the main demands of young people. 90% of respondents stated that they had never faced discrimination due to their political beliefs, language, sexual orientation, religion, social activity or ethnicity. 60% of respondents believe that Ukraine should join the European Union. However, at the same time, they do not trust the European Union, because they believe that no one is waiting for Ukraine there, therefore for them membership in the EU is more a dream than an achievable goal. According to the results of this survey, only 10% of young Ukrainians are interested in politics.

The results of these studies indicate that Ukrainian society remains extremely polarized. Ukrainians often hear opposing points of view and interpretations; therefore, it is often difficult for them to answer the questions of high politics. However, the overwhelming majority of Ukrainians are convinced that reforms could be carried out much more efficiently if there were less corruption in the country.

Translation: Inosmi

Read also on ForumDaily:

The Economist: Ukraine is bursting at the seams; The West must make it fight corruption

The Washington Times: who buys assets in Ukraine in the interests of Yanukovych

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