In August 2026, Ukrainians’ attitudes toward Uzbekistan remain predominantly neutral: 55.6% of respondents hold this view. Taking these categories together, 25.7% of those surveyed view the country positively, while 14.5% view it negatively, according to the Experts Club Information and Analytical Center. In the summary report, the positive figure is listed as 25.6%, which is due to the rounding of the raw data.
6.5% of Ukrainians have a completely positive attitude toward Uzbekistan, while 19.2% have a mostly positive attitude. 55.6% of respondents chose a neutral response. 13.1% view the country mostly negatively, 1.4% completely negatively, and another 4.3% were undecided.
When the categories are combined, the balance between positive and negative attitudes is +11.2 percentage points. Positive assessments thus outnumber negative ones by approximately 1.8 times. At the same time, more than half of those surveyed do not express a strong positive or negative stance toward the country.
In the overall regional picture, Uzbekistan has a less pronounced positive image than Georgia and Azerbaijan. In August, positive assessments stood at 57.3% for Georgia and 48.7% for Azerbaijan, while a high proportion of neutral responses remains the key feature of perceptions toward Uzbekistan.
At the same time, compared to the April 2025 survey, attitudes have become more defined. At that time, 63.4% of Ukrainians held a neutral stance toward Uzbekistan, 21.7% had a positive view, 9.3% had a negative view, and 5.6% were undecided. Thus, the positive segment grew by approximately 4 percentage points, the negative segment by 5.2 percentage points, and the share of neutral responses decreased by 7.8 percentage points.
Maksym Urakin, founder of the Experts Club Information and Analytical Center and a candidate of economic sciences, believes that a key factor in how Uzbekistan is perceived remains Ukrainians’ lack of awareness about the country’s current role in Central Asia.
“For a significant portion of Ukrainian society, Uzbekistan remains a rather distant country. People are exposed to far less information about its economy, business, politics, or humanitarian ties than they are about EU countries, the Caucasus, or Ukraine’s immediate neighbors. That is precisely why the neutral group still accounts for more than half of the respondents,” Urakin noted.
At the same time, he said, the decline in the share of neutral responses—from 63.4% in April 2025 to 55.6% in August 2026—is a more significant signal than the individual increase in positive or negative assessments.
“We are seeing the gradual formation of a more defined image of Uzbekistan. Some respondents are shifting from a neutral stance to a specific assessment of the country. At the same time, positive attitudes still significantly outweigh negative ones. This means that there is a sufficiently favorable foundation for the development of economic, educational, cultural, and humanitarian ties, but the image of Uzbekistan in Ukraine still requires a greater informational presence,” Urakin added.
The current results partially confirm this assessment: the neutral group remains the largest, but it has shrunk significantly compared to 2025. The simultaneous increase in both positive and negative responses indicates, above all, the gradual formation of a more defined attitude toward Uzbekistan.
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.
ACTIVE GROUP, Central Asia, EXPERTS CLUB, international relations, PUBLIC OPINION, SOCIOLOGY, UKRAINE, URAKIN, UZBEKISTAN
Georgia has the highest balance of positive and negative attitudes among Ukrainians among the countries of the Caucasus and Central Asia included in the study—48.5 percentage points. Azerbaijan scored 40.1 percentage points, while Uzbekistan’s score was 11.1 percentage points. These findings come from the third wave of the study “Ukrainians’ Attitudes Toward Countries Around the World,” conducted by Active Group in collaboration with Experts Club, according to the Experts Club Information and Analytical Center.
57.3% of Ukrainians surveyed view Georgia positively, 32.1% neutrally, 8.8% negatively, and another 1.8% were undecided. The balance of positive and negative assessments stands at 48.5 percentage points and has gradually increased over the three waves of the survey: from 45.6 percentage points in August 2025 to 47.5 percentage points in March 2026 and 48.5 percentage points in August of this year. The current figures for positive attitudes and the balance are confirmed by the published survey data.
A positive attitude toward Azerbaijan was expressed by 48.7% of respondents, a neutral one by 39.5%, a negative one by 8.6%, and another 3.1% chose the “difficult to answer” option. The balance stands at 40.1 percentage points. Compared to March 2026, it has risen from 37.8 percentage points, but remains lower than the August 2025 level of 51 percentage points. In terms of the share of positive assessments, Azerbaijan ranks second in this regional group after Georgia.
Attitudes toward Uzbekistan are characterized primarily by a high proportion of neutral assessments. 25.6% of respondents view the country positively, 55.6% neutrally, 14.5% negatively, and another 4.3% are undecided. The balance between positive and negative responses is 11.1 percentage points. In the study’s analytical materials, the high proportion of neutral responses is noted as a characteristic feature of perceptions of countries in the region that receive less media attention from the Ukrainian audience.
Thus, the balance remains positive for all three countries surveyed, but the structure of the assessments differs significantly. In the case of Georgia, the overwhelming majority of respondents express a positive attitude; positive assessments also prevail regarding Azerbaijan, while a neutral stance dominates in assessments of Uzbekistan.
Maksym Urakin, founder of the Experts Club Information and Analytical Center, deputy director of the Interfax-Ukraine news agency, and candidate of economic sciences, emphasized the importance of systematic communication between foreign partners and Ukrainian society.
“Second, we must be open to questions and inquiries from the media and the public. We also need to make use of our sociological data,” Urakin noted. According to him, it is important for embassies to regularly inform the Ukrainian audience about specific results of cooperation and to maintain full-fledged communication in the Ukrainian language.
Oleksandr Pozniy, director of the research company Active Group, drew attention to the need to develop the practical component of international economic cooperation.
“We should focus not only on raising general awareness. We need to expand cooperation with countries where we can achieve a positive trade balance,” Pozniy noted. He also highlighted the role of business associations, the Ministry of Economy, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in developing bilateral relations.
The survey was conducted in August 2026 using self-administered online questionnaires via the SunFlowerSociology panel. A total of 800 Ukrainian citizens aged 18 and older were surveyed. According to the organizers, the sample is representative in terms of age, gender, and region, and the maximum theoretical margin of error for indicators at the 50% confidence level is ±3.5 percentage points. This is the third wave of the survey, following surveys conducted in August 2025 and March 2026.
ACTIVE GROUP, AZERBAIJAN, Central Asia, EXPERTS CLUB, GEORGIA, international relations, Pozniy, SOCIOLOGY, the Caucasus, UKRAINE, URAKIN, UZBEKISTAN
The European Commission has launched the Connectivity Agenda Platform—a new platform to coordinate investments in transport, energy, digital infrastructure, and trade between Europe and Central Asia via the Black Sea region and the South Caucasus.
At the same time, the European Commission has signed agreements with international financial institutions to mobilize up to 2 billion euros for strategic infrastructure projects in the Black Sea region and the South Caucasus.
The platform was presented at a high-level ministerial meeting attended by representatives from EU countries, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Turkey, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan, as well as the G7 and international financial institutions.
The main goal of the initiative is to integrate projects for the development of the Trans-Caspian Transport Corridor into a single system; the EU views this corridor as one of the key routes between Europe and Central Asia, bypassing unstable or politically risky routes.
Investments are planned to be directed toward transportation infrastructure, border crossing points, and trade facilitation. The participants also agreed to enhance the operational efficiency of the Trans-Caspian Corridor and asked the European Commission to assess its performance and propose priority measures to improve the route’s competitiveness.
For Ukraine, this initiative is important in several respects. First, Kyiv has been included in the framework for discussions on regional connectivity between the EU, the Black Sea, the South Caucasus, and Central Asia. Second, the development of alternative trade routes reinforces the importance of the Black Sea corridor for exports, logistics, and the restoration of the region’s transit role. Third, such projects could become part of Ukraine’s broader integration into European transport, energy, and digital networks.
The Connectivity Agenda is part of the Global Gateway strategy. This strategy aims to strengthen the EU’s external connections through investments in infrastructure, energy, digital solutions, and sustainable trade.
The European Commission notes that the Trans-Caspian Transport Corridor is already gaining strategic importance as a more resilient route between Europe and Central Asia. According to Marta Kos, European Commissioner for Enlargement, trade along this route could increase fivefold over the next 15 years.
In fact, the EU is seeking to create a new infrastructure architecture along the Europe–Black Sea–South Caucasus–Central Asia axis. For businesses, this means potentially more routes, less dependence on specific transit routes, and new opportunities in logistics, energy, digital projects, and trade.
Foreign Minister Andriy Sibiga called Kazakhstan a key regional partner of Ukraine and spoke in favor of deepening cooperation in the fields of logistics, energy, and post-war reconstruction, also announcing his intention to launch the “Ukraine + Central Asia” platform.
“It is important for Kazakhstan to remain one of the key suppliers of energy resources in Eurasia, while simultaneously diversifying and modernizing its energy sector. Kazakhstan is also one of the world’s leading producers of uranium, which is a critically important resource for nuclear energy production. This plays an important role in global energy security,” the minister said in an interview with The Times of Central Asia.
Sibiga noted that Ukraine is interested in the participation of Kazakhstani businesses and investors in the country’s reconstruction, as well as in the development of the Middle Corridor as an alternative transport route between Asia and Europe involving Ukrainian Black Sea ports.
Separately, the foreign minister touched on the topic of historical memory and the shared experience of Ukraine and Kazakhstan related to policies of repression and the suppression of national identity.
According to Sibiga, Russia’s strategic goal is to continue a policy that, in his assessment, dates back to the times of the Russian Empire and the Soviet period.
“Russia’s strategic goal is to complete what the Russian Empire began and the Soviet regime failed to finish: the eradication of national identity and the destruction of the very foundation of our existence as a separate nation,” he emphasized.
The minister also noted that Ukraine and Kazakhstan share a common historical memory of language and cultural bans, repression, deportations, and famines.
“Ukraine and Kazakhstan alike remember the tragic chapters of their history: the banning of language and culture, the destruction of the intelligentsia, deportations, repression, and famines. We cannot allow this to happen again,” the foreign minister concluded.
Central Asia, KAZAKHSTAN, MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS, PARTNER
The first Central Asia-Republic of Korea Summit will be held in Seoul on September 16-17, 2026.
The summit is expected to be attended by the heads of Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan.
The main goal of the summit is to expand diplomatic horizons and qualitatively strengthen ties between Seoul and the region. The parties will pay special attention to diversification of supply chains and economic security, which is critical in the current geopolitical environment.
The new format of the dialogue is intended to move cooperation from the plane of individual projects to the plane of systemic multilateral interaction, covering energy, technology, and logistics.
The World Korea writes that the government of the Republic of Korea intends to use the upcoming summit as an opportunity to develop cooperation in the following areas:
– Partnership in critical minerals and energy;
– Industrial and digital transformation;
– Transportation and logistics ties;
– Cooperation in defense and security;
– Cooperation in Agriculture, Climate and Health.
On November 13, 2025, the first meeting of the Council of Ministers of Trade and Investment of Central Asian countries and Azerbaijan was held in Tashkent.
The event was aimed at strengthening practical cooperation between the countries of the region in the areas of trade, investment, and industrial cooperation, as well as implementing joint initiatives to increase mutual trade and create cooperative production facilities.
Particular attention was paid to the creation of working tools to increase trade turnover between the countries of the region to $20 billion, the formation of joint production sites under the “Made in Central Asia” brand, as well as the involvement of international financial institutions and large investors in the implementation of joint infrastructure and industrial projects.
It was noted that mutual trade between Uzbekistan and the countries of Central Asia is showing steady positive dynamics. While trade turnover amounted to $3.2 billion in 2017, by 2024 it had more than doubled, reaching $6.9 billion. In particular, trade turnover with Kazakhstan is approaching $4 billion, with Kyrgyzstan — $700 million, with Tajikistan — exceeding $570 million, and with Turkmenistan — more than doubling over the past five years to $1.15 billion. Trade with Azerbaijan has also shown significant growth, up 13% since the beginning of the year.
During the meeting, the need for further optimization of customs and border procedures, synchronization of transport and logistics infrastructure, and the creation of industrial hubs capable of uniting the production chains of the countries in the region was also emphasized. Particular attention was paid to issues of industrial cooperation, joint development of raw material and technological potential, and the development of exports of finished products with high added value.
Following the meeting, a joint communiqué was signed, setting out key agreements on deepening economic cooperation, developing cooperation and joint production, and creating new mechanisms for investment interaction.
