After a year of war, 95% of Ukrainians confident of victory

UPDATE DAY

Ninety-five percent of Ukrainians believe in their country's victory over Russia, according to a poll conducted in early February by the Ukrainian institute Rating Group, which shows that the country's resolve is not diminishing after a year of war.

At the same time, 97% of Ukrainians polled say they trust their army (compared to 65% in 2019) and 90% in their president, Volodymyr Zelensky (36% in January 2022), according to this poll.

While 17% of the population said they had lost a loved one killed in the war, more than half (58%) considered it “impossible” to restore friendly relations with the Russians and Belarusians, whose country is an ally of Moscow. For 22%, such a recovery is possible “in 20 to 30 years” and for 11%, “in 10 to 15 years”.

Two-thirds of Ukrainians saw a deterioration in their economic situation and 36% said they had lost their jobs.

The share of Ukrainians living apart from their relatives due to the war, on the other hand, fell from 41 % in March 2022 to 21% a year later.

The survey was conducted in February among a “representative sample” of more than 1,600 Ukrainians living in various regions of the country except territories occupied by Russia in Crimea and the East.

The study also reveals the pro-Western aspirations of Ukrainians: 87% of them want to join the European Union and 86% want to join NATO, proportions that have been steadily increasing in recent years.< /p>

In February 2022, before the start of the war, 62% of Ukrainians wanted to join the Atlantic Alliance and 30% were against it. In March 2014, when Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimean peninsula, sparking a crisis between the two countries, a majority of Ukrainians were even opposed to NATO integration (43% versus 34%), according to Rating.

The study published by the Rating Institute also looks at the opinions of Ukrainians on a wide spectrum of social issues.

It also reveals that the share of Ukrainians saying they “have no doubt” of the existence of God has fallen from 60 to 55% since 2021, support for the death penalty has fallen from 52 to 42%.

In contrast, the share of the population saying they have a “neutral or positive attitude towards the LGBT community” in the country has increased from 53 to 64% since 2021.