Business news from Ukraine

Germany remains one of the countries with a high level of positive perception among Ukrainians; however, in August 2026, this figure dropped significantly compared to the previous survey wave. According to the results of a survey by Active Group and Experts Club, 69.9% of respondents have a positive attitude toward Germany, while 5.5% have a negative one, reports the Experts Club Information and Analytical Center.

According to the August survey, 26.8% of Ukrainians view Germany entirely positively, and 43.1% view it mostly positively. A neutral stance was held by 23.5% of respondents. A mostly negative attitude was expressed by 4.9%, a completely negative one by 0.6%, and another 1.2% were undecided.

The balance of positive and negative assessments stands at plus 64.4 percentage points. This keeps Germany among the countries with a distinctly positive perception, although the figure is lower compared to previous surveys. In August 2026, Germany ranked behind France and the Netherlands among Western European countries in terms of the share of positive attitudes.

In March 2026, 77.4% of respondents viewed Germany positively: 32.9% viewed it entirely positively and 44.5% viewed it mostly positively. Negative assessments accounted for only 3.5%, while 18.4% of respondents chose a neutral response.

Thus, over the course of five months, the share of positive assessments decreased by 7.5 percentage points—from 77.4% to 69.9%—while negative assessments increased by 2 percentage points—from 3.5% to 5.5%—and neutral assessments rose by approximately 5.1 percentage points. The balance between positive and negative assessments fell from 73.9 to 64.4 percentage points. However, positive attitudes still outnumber negative ones by nearly 13 to 1.

At the same time, Germany remains one of Ukraine’s largest trading partners. In the first half of 2026, Ukrainian exports to Germany totaled approximately $1.267 billion, imports amounted to $3.208 billion, and total trade volume reached about $4.48 billion. The trade deficit for Ukraine amounted to approximately $1.94 billion. Ukraine’s main exports included cable products, rapeseed, furniture, soybeans, and metal pipes, while imports from Germany consisted of automobiles, pharmaceuticals, petroleum products, and agricultural machinery.

Oleksandr Pozniy, director of the research firm Active Group, commenting on Ukrainians’ high regard for Germany in the previous wave of the survey, attributed it to a combination of factors that go beyond purely economic relations.

“Germany is viewed as a strategic ally in the political and security spheres. Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian refugees have found shelter there, and large-scale financial and military aid plays a key role in the resilience of our state. The combination of these factors explains why more than three-quarters of Ukrainians view Germany positively and why this country remains among the undisputed leaders in terms of trust within our society,” Pozniy noted.

The new wave of the survey shows that the level of positive attitudes toward Germany has declined compared to the spring, but there has been no fundamental change in the structure of public opinions: positive responses continue to significantly outnumber negative ones, and the main increase occurred not in the category of negative attitudes but in that of neutral ones.

The survey was conducted in August 2026 using an online self-administered questionnaire via the SunFlowerSociology panel among 800 Ukrainian citizens aged 18 and older. The sample is representative by age, gender, and region; the maximum theoretical margin of error for indicators at the 50% confidence level is ±3.5 percentage points.