The survey, conducted by Active Group in cooperation with the Experts Club think tank, revealed citizens’ attitudes to various aspects of social and economic life in Ukraine, including the initiative to refund part of the cost of Ukrainian goods, the government’s influence on business, the level of trust in law enforcement, financial stability of citizens, and forecasts for the hryvnia exchange rate.
A significant proportion of respondents (44%) have heard of the initiative to refund the cost of purchasing Ukrainian goods, with opinions divided on its impact on living standards. Most respondents believe that the government will increase taxes to finance this initiative.
According to Andriy Yeremenko, founder of the sociological research company Active Group, this raises concerns among the population, as most are not ready for an increase in the fiscal burden.
The study also revealed a deep distrust of government institutions (57% of citizens) and law enforcement agencies (62%) in the context of relations with business, in particular due to the lack of transparency and efficiency of their work. The majority of respondents believe that the state hinders rather than helps business to develop, and this trend has increased compared to previous months.
A significant number of Ukrainians (up to 60%) are experiencing financial difficulties, including increased debt and lack of savings for a rainy day. Respondents also expressed concern about the future of the hryvnia exchange rate, with the majority (55%) expecting it to fall.
In the context of utility bills, the vast majority (67%) of respondents believe that the level of tariffs is too high, which further emphasizes the general dissatisfaction with the financial situation and government policy in this area.
According to Oleksandr Poznyi, Director of Active Group, these results demonstrate the serious challenges faced by Ukrainian society in the context of the war and the current economic situation.
Earlier, Maksym Urakin, the founder of the Experts Club think tank, noted that in 2024 Ukraine’s public debt may exceed GDP for the first time, which poses significant risks to economic stability in the country.
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More than 65% of Ukrainians surveyed cannot recall a single brand of domestically produced wine. This is evidenced by the results of a sociological survey conducted by Active Group in cooperation with the Kyiv-based analytical center Experts Club.
Among the domestic wine brands most frequently mentioned by Ukrainians are Koblevo, Shabo, Villa Krym, Bolgrad, Chizay, Kolonist, Inkerman, Oreanda and others. Also, only 30% of respondents have tasted Ukrainian-made craft wine at least once in their lives, and 17% do not know what craft winemaking is.
On the other hand, 54% of respondents would prefer Ukrainian wine if they had to choose a bottle for a visit or a party. At the same time, 47% of respondents prefer Ukrainian alcohol in general, while 27% prefer imported alcohol, and 27% are undecided.
In addition, the survey showed that 30% of citizens do not drink alcohol at all, 28% drink alcohol once a month or less, and 16% drink no more than once a week.
“In wine-growing countries, people are very patriotic about their own products, but in Ukraine, for some reason, sommeliers would rather recommend a foreign product than Ukrainian ones, even though we have quite high-quality craft wines. Therefore, it is necessary to change the worldview and popularize our own production so that the word Ukrainian is synonymous with quality,” said Oleksandr Poznyi, director of Active Group.
In turn, Maxim Urakin, founder of the Experts Club think tank, emphasized the importance of Ukrainian wine in new markets.
“Increasing export volumes is also a good information occasion that will make Ukrainian wine more popular among our consumers. This can be achieved through obtaining international certificates confirming the high quality of Ukrainian wine, as well as through cooperation with well-known winemakers from other countries to improve the skills of Ukrainian winemakers. An example of such cooperation is the assistance to Ukrainian winemaking from the world-famous representative of this industry, Ricardo Fernandez Nunez, owner of the international wine group Vinos de la Luz,” said Urakin.
Volodymyr Pechko, Chairman of the Association of Gardeners, Winegrowers and Winemakers of Ukraine (UKRSADVINPROM), noted that the creation and presentation of new unique varieties and improvement of production technologies could be important factors that will improve the image of Ukrainian craft wine among consumers.
“Ukrainian wineries are increasingly implementing modern wine production technologies. This can be a good reason to hold public events and popularize this product. In particular, UkrSadVinProm has stepped up the use of the latest technologies in the field of planting, processing, cleaning, storage and transportation of wine and wine materials to ensure that Ukrainian fruits and berries meet international quality standards,” said Pechko.
The survey was conducted in July 2023 among Ukrainian citizens aged 18 and older by self-administered questionnaires in the SunFlowerSociology panel.
About 1 thousand respondents – citizens of Ukraine aged 18 and older – took part in the survey, which was conducted online in the SunFlower Sociology panel. The survey program was developed jointly by Experts Club and Active group.
Only 10% of Ukrainians, who define themselves as believers, regularly visit religious houses. These are the data of a sociological study conducted by the Active Group social research company and the Expert Club analytical center and presented during a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine.
“Compared to the indicators of 2020, the number of people, who consider themselves rather non-believers, has grown in Ukraine. This figure has increased from 8 to 13% over the year. This may be due to the reverse transition from religious practices to secular ones due to the end of the critical phase of the pandemic in our country,” the co-founder of the Expert Club, political scientist Daniel Bogatyrev said.
“Among people who consider themselves believers, 86% identify themselves as Orthodox Christians, 9% are Catholics, 1.2% are Islam believers, 0.7% Protestantism believers, 0.3% pagans, and 0.2% Judaism believers,” Head of Active Group Oleksandr Pozniy said, summing up the results of the study.
In addition, Pozniy noted the correlation between adherence to Orthodox Christianity and the age of citizens. The study revealed an increase in the number of Orthodox believers among middle-aged and elder people.
According to Editor-in-Chief of the Ukraine in Arabic news portal Mohammad Farajallah, faith should meet the traditions and life of the nation in which it prevails.
“Ukraine has always been a multinational and poly-confessional state, but Orthodoxy has been and will remain the main religion in Ukraine. As for Islam here, the percentage of Muslims has remained generally unchanged thanks to the indigenous people, primarily the Crimean Tatars… Over the 30 years of independence, the number of immigrants professing Islam in Ukraine has not exceeded 50,000-100,000 people, which is not a significant figure,” Farajallah said.
Many people select a particular confession based primarily on political considerations, political scientist and Head of the UP Foundation, Kost Bondarenko, said.
“If one looks at the realities, political engagement does not make it possible to talk about the churching of parishioners of certain confessions. It is one thing to declare the faith, but another thing is churching. This can be observed every year, when at the end of July religious processions are organized in honor of the feast of the Baptism of Rus. At the same time, the processions of the two confessions (UOC and OCU) are different. The number of parishioners of the UOC is usually 200,000-300,000 people who walk with crosses and banners, showing their adherence to Orthodoxy. At the same time, during the processions of the OCU, parishioners mostly go with national flags and portraits of the heroes of the Ukrainian pantheon. This really indicates to two approaches to religiosity in these confessions,” Bondarenko said.
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Some 36% of Ukrainians trust Alexander Lukashenko, 26.7% – Joe Biden, 26.2% – Emmanuel Macron and 14.4% – Vladimir Putin, according to the results of a poll conducted by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) from January 27 to February 1.
According to the research, President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko, whom the EU and the U.S. do not recognize as legally elected, is trusted by 36% of respondents, distrusted – by 53.6%,there are 7.6% of those who found it difficult to answer, and 2.7% do not know. The balance of trust in Lukashenko is (-17.6%).
U.S. President Joe Biden is trusted by 26.7% of respondents, 23.3% do not trust him, 25.4% found it difficult to answer, and 24.6% do not know. The balance of trust in Biden is (+ 3.4%).
Some 26.2% of respondents trust French President Emmanuel Macron, 23.2% do not trust him, 22.9% found it difficult to answer, and 27.6% do not know. The balance of trust in Macron is (+ 3%).
Some 14.4% of respondents trust Russian President Vladimir Putin, while 79.8% do not trust him, 5.6% found it difficult to answer, and 0.3% do not know. The balance of trust in Putin is (-65.4%).
The all-Ukrainian poll was conducted by personal interviews using tablets (CAPPE). Some 1,205 respondents living in 86 settlements of all regions of Ukraine (except for the Autonomous Republic of Crimea) were interviewed according to a 3-stage stochastic sample with a quota selection at the last stage, which is representative for the population of Ukraine aged 18 and over. In Luhansk and Donetsk regions, the survey was conducted only in the territory controlled by the Ukrainian authorities.
The statistical error of the sample (with a probability of 0.95 and excluding the design effect) does not exceed: 2.9% – for indicators close to 50%, 2.5% – for indicators close to 25%, 1.9% – for indicators close to 12%, and 1.3% – for indicators close to 5%.
Rural people in general feel more secure than urban residents in the current situation in Ukraine, says political analyst Serhiy Lozovsky.
“People in villages feel themselves the least exposed to danger. And sociological studies confirm this. Rural residents have enough inner strength to secure themselves and their families. As to residents of cities, where government agencies must ensure security, there is a problem which makes them feel less secure in cities,” Lozovsky said, while commenting on a joint survey conducted by the Active Group and the Expert Club in a program on the latter’s YouTube channel.
According to the expert, this is caused by the fact that law enforcers often demonstrate poor response to acts of violence and violation of law.
“This often happens during mass events when law enforcers stand in line and show no response to beatings they witness,” Lozovsky said.
Earlier, at the press center of the Interfax-Ukraine News Agency, the Active Group and the Expert Club presented the results of their second joint survey. This time they studied Ukrainians’ opinion about work of central government agencies and local governments, unemployment growth caused by the quarantine restrictions, the population’s attitude towards official statistics on the coronavirus (COVID-19) incidence rate, as well as the main issues of concern for urban and rural residents.
The survey showed that the population in general negatively treats the incumbent government. Local governments enjoy the highest rating among Ukrainians – 45% of respondents praised their work, 38% said the president was doing a good job, and only around 20% praised the country’s prime minister.
Some 10.5% of those polled said the National Police worked good, while more than 55% said the opposite. Local police stations have the highest rating – 22% praised their work, while 39% said it was bad.
The main issues of concern for urban and rural residents include: quality of roads (54% of respondents), condition of the public facilities (44.7%), condition of the infrastructure inside buildings (43.5%), unemployment (34.2%), housing and utility tariffs (31.1%), mass renaming of streets, cities and villages (29.2%).
Additional information about the survey is available on the website of Active Group and on the Expert Club YouTube channel.
The video is available on the YouTube channel:
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Active Group and Expert Club have presented a joint sociological survey at the press center of the Interfax-Ukraine News Agency.
The opinion survey covered Ukrainian citizens’ assessment of work of the government and the national police, their attitude to a rise in unemployment and the official statistics on COVID-19 sickness rate, the main issues of concern of urban and rural residents, religion-related problems, etc.
The invited experts – political analyst Serhiy Lozovsky, political expert Valentyn Haidai, political scientist Danylo Bohatyriov, Head of the Active Group sociology company Oleksandr Pozniy – shared their opinions about the results of the survey and commented on the most interesting trends discovered during the poll. The experts came to the conclusion that the ruling party is likely to lose ground, while regional projects will strengthen their positions at the local elections on October 25.
According to the survey, the population in general negatively assesses the work of the central government agencies. Some 38% respondents praised the president’s work and less than 20% said they were positive about work of the prime minister and the Cabinet of Ministers in general. Only 10% of respondents gave a positive assessment of the national police and 22% praised the patrol police (district offices in regions).
Most of the polled Ukrainian citizens are satisfied with the work of local governments: 45% of respondents gave them 4 and 5 points on a scale from one to five.
A total of 33% respondents said that they have experienced changes in their work schedule and employment following the introduction of lockdown restrictions. Some 12.4% switched to remote work, 10.6% left for unpaid vacation, 5% had their work schedule curtailed, 3.1% were laid off, 1.9% left for paid vacation. Meanwhile, 34% of respondents continued to work as regular.
Around 55% of respondents said they did not trust the Health Ministry’s statistics on COVID-19 sickness rate, of them 34.2% said the figures were overstated, 20.5% said the figures were understated. Some 18.6% of those polled fully trust the statistics, 14.9% – trust it partially.
Some 72% respondents said they are religious people (regardless of confession), while 24% said they are atheists.
The main issues of concern mentioned by urban and rural residents include the quality of roads (54%), condition of public spaces (44.7%), condition of domestic infrastructure (43.5%), lack of jobs (34.2%), housing and utility tariffs (31.1%), mass renaming of streets, cities and villages (29.2%).
You can find additional information about the survey on the website of Active Group and on the Expert Club YouTube channel.
The video of the presentation is available on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttCb81mQqbk
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