More than 95% of Ukrainians are confident in the victory of their state in the war with Russia, while the majority of respondents (63.2%) expect it to come before year-end. That’s according to a sociological study by Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) commissioned by the Institute of Sociology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Ukrinform reports.
“More than 95% of the respondents are confident in Ukraine’s victory in the war with Russia. At the same time, the absolute majority of respondents (63.2%) expect it within this year,” the statement reads.
“Only 26% answered that the war will last more than a year. So, society has high hopes for a quick end to the military confrontation with Russia, which will climax in our victory,” KIIS reports.
As noted, almost all respondents give high (63.8%) or medium (32.1%) ratings to the international support provided to Ukraine to defeat Russia.
According to the research, as a result of the war and awareness of the value of the country, which has always been undermined by socio-political negativism prevalent in Ukraine, the corresponding assessments have changed significantly. Now, evaluations of the effectiveness of the Ukrainian government have improved significantly (only 9.3% of respondents see it as low), as well as expectations for the country’s future (76.2% believe that the situation will improve). Therefore the general attitudes towards the state changed from mostly negative in 2021 (55.8% negative against 6.6% positive) to mostly positive in 2022 (46.6% positive against 26.1% negative).
According to sociologists, the trend toward the strengthening of civic awareness, recorded by the Institute of Sociology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine since 2000, expectedly prevailed during the war. The corresponding type of awareness increased from 62.6% in 2021 to 79.7% in 2022.
“According to our analysis, the period of national-civic crystallization, which lasted from 2015, was replaced by a period of national-civic consolidation, the transition to which was caused by a large-scale war. In fact, we believe that the process of forming a civic nation has completed in Ukraine, which does not remove the need of solving the next important task of the national scale – full-fledged European integration,” the press release emphasizes.
As for the moral and psychological state of society, despite all the changes in public opinion, the perception of cynicism in society (in the sense of disdain for generally accepted moral standards) has not fundamentally changed, the press release notes. Positive changes have taken place, but still the absolute majority of respondents (51.6%) view others in a cynical light.
“At the same time, there are two positive points. First, the majority of respondents believe in the sincerity of Ukrainians to help each other, which was not the case before. Second, according to indicators of cynicism, Ukrainian society reached the level of 1992 (after that the indicators were consistently worse), when the corresponding evaluations were first made. It is hoped that this upward trend will continue,” the report said.
At the same time, it is noted that other indicators of the moral and psychological state are quite positive. Thus, the number of those who believe that “every person is born with a predetermined destiny” (indicator of fatalism) has significantly decreased – from 59.3% in 2002 to 35.1% in 2022. This indicates growing subjectivity in Ukrainian society. The number of those who are confident in their abilities also increased – from 42% in 2021 to 56.4% in 2022.
In favor of psychological stability testifies the readiness of the absolute majority of people (69%) to endure the problems associated with the war up till victory. Optimism in the short term is also indicative – more than two-thirds of respondents (67.9%) answered that they expect life to improve in 2023, sociologists state.