Business news from Ukraine

Ukrainians’ positive attitude toward Bulgaria in August 2026 declined compared to the previous phase of the study: 42.7% of respondents view the country positively, down from 53.8% in March. At the same time, Ukrainians with a neutral attitude became the largest group—47.6%, according to the Experts Club Information and Analytical Center.

According to the results of the August survey, 11% of Ukrainians have a completely positive attitude toward Bulgaria, while 31.7% have a mostly positive attitude. A neutral stance is held by 47.6% of respondents. A mostly negative attitude was expressed by 6.8%, a completely negative attitude by 0.6%, and another 2.3% were undecided.

Thus, the combined share of negative assessments is 7.4%, and the balance between positive and negative attitudes is +35.3 percentage points. Despite a decline in positive ratings, favorable assessments of Bulgaria are nearly six times higher than negative ones. At the same time, nearly one in two respondents expresses neither a positive nor a negative attitude toward the country.

Compared to March 2026, the changes are quite noticeable. In the previous survey, 14.2% of respondents viewed Bulgaria entirely positively, and another 39.6% viewed it predominantly positively. The overall positive rating stood at 53.8%, the neutral rating at 42.4%, while negative assessments accounted for only 2.3%.

Over the course of five months, the share of positive responses fell by 11.1 percentage points—from 53.8% to 42.7%. Negative attitudes increased by 5.1 percentage points—from 2.3% to 7.4%—while neutral attitudes rose by 5.2 percentage points to 47.6%. The balance of positive and negative assessments fell from approximately plus 51.5 percentage points in March to plus 35.3 percentage points in August.

At the same time, the “mostly positive” category saw the sharpest decline—from 39.6% to 31.7%—while the share of entirely positive responses fell from 14.2% to 11%. Thus, the deterioration in the indicators occurred simultaneously due to growth in both the neutral and negative segments.

Maksym Urakin, founder of the Experts Club information and analytical center and a candidate of economic sciences, had previously drawn attention specifically to the significant share of uncertain or neutral perceptions of Bulgaria.

“This result indicates not so much indifference as the lack of an active Bulgarian presence in Ukraine’s information space,” Urakin noted. In his view, the problem lies not so much in an established negative image as in the country’s insufficient visibility to the Ukrainian audience. More active communication in the areas of economic, humanitarian, and other practical cooperation could help foster a more defined attitude.

The latest round of the survey partially confirms the validity of this assessment: the share of neutral respondents has once again approached half. At the same time, unlike in March, the share of negative responses has also increased, although it remains significantly lower than the share of positive responses.

The survey was conducted in August 2026 using self-administered online questionnaires from the SunFlowerSociology panel among 800 Ukrainian citizens aged 18 and older. The previous round of the survey in March also included 800 respondents; the sample was representative by age, gender, and region, with a maximum theoretical margin of error of ±3.5 percentage points for indicators at the 50% level.