Findings of a public opinion poll conducted by the Oleksandr Yaremenko Ukrainian Institute for Social Research, the Social Monitoring Center, and the Institute of Economics and Forecasting of Ukraine’s National Academy of Sciences show that the majority of Ukrainians trust President Volodymyr Zelensky and the country’s armed forces.
According to the poll results, which were presented at Interfax-Ukraine’s office on Thursday, almost 58% of Ukrainians generally trust Zelensky, 35.1% are more likely to trust the president, and 23% of citizens trust him completely. Former President Petro Poroshenko had the trust of 15% of respondents (11.3% and 3.7%, respectively).
The Ukrainian Armed Forces enjoy the trust of more than 64% of respondents, the National Police 30.7%, law enforcement agencies 30.6%, the SBU Security Service of Ukraine 29.9%, the Prosecutor General’s Office 18.4%, and the National Anti-corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) 15.3%.
Some 22.9% of Ukrainians have confidence in the National Bank of Ukraine, 14.8% in the Cabinet, 13.3% in political parties, and 10.3% in the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s parliament.
The poll was conducted in 24 Ukrainian regions and the city of Kyiv on May 10-18 and involved 2,100 people. The margin of error is between 1.31% and 2.18%.
About half of Ukrainians are counting on an improvement in the situation in the country after the presidential election and believe that the new team of the head of state should be given at least a year to achieve positive results. According to results of a survey conducted by the Sociological Group Rating during the past two weeks of April, 48% of respondents expect an improvement in the situation in the country as a result of presidential elections. Some 25% have no hopes for changes, another 10% expect deterioration. Residents in Ukraine’s southern and eastern regions are the most optimistic, along with younger respondents and supporters of showman and presidential candidate Volodymyr Zelensky.
Half of respondents believe the new president’s team should be given at least a year to show positive results. Despite this, a quarter of respondents want their achievements to appear within six months, another 14% want to see them in three months and 8% are waiting for immediate changes. Among the young respondents, residents of southern and central Ukraine are slightly more than those who are willing to wait a year or more to see the achievements of the work of the future head of state.
Some 28% of respondents are convinced that this election rather united the country. At the same time, 24% believe that the split has intensified. A third of respondents say this presidential election neither split nor united Ukraine. Most of those who see consolidating processes are among Zelensky supporters (38%). Every fifth respondent sees the possibility of a split. But among Poroshenko supporters, one in three predicts division, compared to 17% who predict the country will unite.
Some 76% of respondents say this is normal when their family members, relatives or acquaintances support a different candidate. Despite this, 9% consider this situation to be a mistake, while noting that they will not try to influence the choice. An equal number say they will try to convince their loved ones to change their minds, mostly among Poroshenko’s supporters – 22%.
Sociological Group Rating conducted a survey of electoral attitudes of Ukrainians from April 12 to April 16, 2019 among Ukrainians who are 18 and older. The sample is representative by age, gender, region, and type of settlement. Some 3,000 persons took part via personal formal interview (face-to-face). The margin of error of the survey does not exceed 1.8%.
The income of the population of Ukraine in 2018 amounted to UAH 3.22 trillion, expenses to UAH 3.202 trillion, while the savings of Ukrainians rose by UAH 16.8 billion, the State Statistics Service has reported.
According to its data, disposable income, which can be used to purchase goods and pay for services, over this period grew by 21.9%.
Disposable income per capita in the third quarter amounted to UAH 57,909, which is 22.5% more than in 2018.
Most people in Russia and Ukraine believe their countries should be independent but have open borders without visas or customs for each other’s citizens, the Levada Analytical Center and the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) said in their joint survey.
The opinion was expressed by 52% of Russians polled by Levada and 48% of Ukrainians polled by KIIS. A total of 25% of Russian respondents and 38% of Ukrainian respondents disagreed.
Seventeen percent of polled Russians and 4% of polled Ukrainians said they wanted Russia and Ukraine to be a single state.
The survey showed that people in both countries are well disposed towards each other. Eighty-two percent of polled Russians declared their warm feelings for Ukrainians, including 25% who said their attitude was very good. The percentage stood at 77% and 23%, respectively, in Ukraine.
Negative feelings were expressed by 13% of polled Russians and 14% of polled Ukrainians. At the same time, 85% of Russian respondents and 69% of Ukrainian respondents exhibited negative sentiments towards the leaders of each other’s countries, the pollsters said.
Levada polled 1,600 people older than 18 in 137 populated localities in 50 Russian constituent territories on February 15-20. KIIS polled 2,042 respondents in Ukraine on February 8-20.
As many as two million Ukrainians have been able to benefit from a visa-free regime with the European Union, President Petro Poroshenko of Ukraine has said.
“Two million Ukrainians have already used a visa-free regime with the EU! The visa-free regime does work!” Poroshenko wrote on his Facebook page on January 3 morning.
The Ukrainian head of state said Ukraine enjoys a visa-free regime with more than 100 countries.
“At present, we have a visa-free regime with more than 100 countries. And we continue to open the world for Ukraine and Ukraine for the world,” Poroshenko said.
Ukrainians registered 11,000 cars with foreign license plates, which were registered in the temporary importation or transit regimes, in one month, the State Fiscal Service of Ukraine reported on its website on Thursday.
“From November 25 through December 26, 2018, citizens cleared 11,000 vehicles with foreign license plates, which have been imported to the customs territory of Ukraine since January 1, 2015 until the new rules of importation of these vehicles took effect,” the authority said.
Almost 9,600 out of cleared vehicles stayed in the country in violation of the Ukrainian legislation, the State Fiscal Service said.
On December 26, almost 1,400 vehicles were cleared.
As reported, Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada passed bills cutting the excise duty on vehicles and toughening supervision over the movement and use of vehicles registered in other states. The preferential excise duty (with the 0.5 factor) was set for owners of cars with foreign licenses plates for clearing their vehicles within 90 calendar days.
