Over 40% of Ukrainians believe that the situation with democracy has worsened under Zelenskyy's presidency

Inauguration of Volodymyr Zelensky / Photo: Office of the President

More than 90% of Ukrainians want to see Ukraine as a fully functioning democracy. At the same time, 43% believe that the situation with democracy has worsened during the presidency of Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

This is evidenced by survey data of the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology.

Citizens were asked whether the deterioration of the situation with democracy is more a consequence of the objective circumstances of the martial law or rather a consequence of the government's attempts to curtail the rights and freedoms of citizens?

19% of respondents believe that the situation with democracy has improved, and 29% — that it has not changed.

43% of respondents see certain deterioration. Among them, 11% primarily associate it with the objective circumstances of wartime, and 28% with attempts by the authorities to curtail the rights and freedoms of citizens (another 3% cited both reasons).

The KMIS survey was conducted during May 16-22, 2024.

Using the method of telephone interviews (computer-assisted-telephone-interviews, CATI) based on a random sample of mobile phone numbers (with random generation of phone numbers and subsequent statistical weighting), 1,002 respondents living in all regions of Ukraine (territory under the control of the Government of Ukraine) were interviewed. The survey was conducted with adults (aged 18 and older) citizens of Ukraine who, at the time of the survey, lived on the territory of Ukraine controlled by the Government of Ukraine. The sample did not include residents of territories that are temporarily not controlled by the authorities of Ukraine (at the same time, out of 1,002 respondents from February 26 to 24, 2022, lived in the territories that are now occupied), and the survey was not conducted with citizens who went abroad after February 24, 2022.

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 1.1) did not exceed 3.4% for indicators close to 50%, 3.0% for indicators close to 25%, 2.1% — for indicators close to 10%, 1.5% — for indicators close to 5%.

It will be recalled that according to the survey of the Razumkov Center, 45% of Ukrainians believe that a political force that can be entrusted with power in the post-war period can emerge from the ranks of the military.