A total of 76.7% of Ukrainians consider the system of territorial recruitment and social support centres to be the most affected by corruption.
This is evidenced by the results of a sociological survey conducted by the Politarena publication jointly with the Active Group company on 1 August 2026.
According to the survey, 82.6% of respondents believe that the level of corruption in Ukraine has increased since 2022. A decline was reported by 6.6% of respondents, while 10.8% were unable to decide on an answer.
Compared with January 2023, Ukrainians’ assessments have deteriorated significantly. At that time, 43% of respondents spoke of an increase in the level of corruption, while 33.6% spoke of its decrease.
Territorial recruitment and social support centres ranked first among the structures that Ukrainians consider the most corrupt, with a figure of 76.7%. In October 2024, 71.3% of respondents expressed this opinion.
The judicial system ranked second, with 62.2% of respondents calling it corrupt, compared with 71.2% in 2024. Law enforcement agencies ranked third with 59.1%, compared with 67.7% in 2024.
The Ministry of Defence of Ukraine is considered corrupt by 39.2% of survey participants, the Cabinet of Ministers by 39%, and local self-government bodies by 37.3%.
A total of 30.2% of respondents included President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy among corrupt institutions and officials. The Armed Forces of Ukraine were described as corrupt by 18.4% of respondents, while social protection bodies were named by 17.9%.
Research methodology: the study was conducted using the SunFlower Sociology online panel. Method: self-completion of questionnaires by Ukrainian citizens aged 18 and over. Sample: 2,000 questionnaires (representative by age, gender and region of Ukraine). The theoretical margin of error at a confidence probability of 0.95 does not exceed 2.2%. Data collection period: 1 August 2026. Median salary values were calculated among those who provided a substantive response, using linear interpolation within the intervals; the extreme categories were taken as UAH 5,000 (“up to UAH 10,000”) and UAH 150,000 (“over UAH 150,000”).
