Vitaly Saenko13:32, 07.11.24

3% of Ukrainian citizens still have a positive attitude towards the aggressor country.

Almost an absolute majority – 93% – of Ukrainian citizens surveyed have a negative attitude towards Russia, while 3% still have a positive attitude towards the aggressor country. This is evidenced by the results of surveys conducted by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology in September-October 2024.

As sociologists have noted, after the full-scale invasion, the absolute majority of Ukrainians have a consistently negative attitude towards Russia.

“It is important to emphasize that the deterioration in attitudes toward Russia followed Russia’s own aggressive actions, and did not precede them. Russian authorities and propaganda claim that their aggressive actions are a response to the growth of anti-Russian sentiment (although even this cannot justify military action in any case). However, our data show that Ukrainians maintained a good attitude toward Russia, and only Russia, with its brutal steps, forced Ukrainians to reconsider their attitude,” the sociologists noted.

The results also show that in October 2024, the absolute majority of the population in all regions of Ukraine – from 96% in the west to 88% in the east – have a bad attitude towards Russia. The share of those who have a good attitude varies from just 1% in the west to just 5% in the south.

At the same time, the attitude towards Russian residents of Russia is somewhat better, although not by much.

Thus, 8% of Ukrainians have a good attitude towards Russians, while 84% have a bad attitude. That is, according to sociologists, this indicates that both the Russian authorities and ordinary Russians are responsible for the war.

At the same time, the absolute majority of Ukrainians in all regions – from 90% in the West to 75% in the East – have a bad attitude towards Russians – residents of Russia. The share of those who continue to have a good attitude towards them does not exceed 13% (in the South and East).

***The surveys were conducted using telephone interviews based on a random sample of mobile phone numbers (with random generation of phone numbers and subsequent statistical weighting) in all regions of Ukraine (territory controlled by the Government of Ukraine). In one of the studies (using the Bogardus scale), a total of 1,013 respondents were interviewed.

The survey (with a direct question about attitudes towards Russia and Russians) was conducted in the period September 20 – October 3, 2024. Formally, under normal circumstances, the statistical error of such a sample (with a probability of 0.95 and taking into account the design effect of 1.3) did not exceed 2.9% for indicators close to 50%, 2.5% for indicators close to 25%, 1.7% for indicators close to 10%, 1.3% for indicators close to 5%.

(C)UNIAN 2024