The poll was conducted during 24-25 of February 2022 where there were reflected thoughts and feelings of Ukrainians at the beginning of war
This poll was planned as a monthly project of Open Mind Foundation research fund and Liberty Report platform on demand of “Savik Shuster`s Freedom of Speech” talk show. The beginning of the poll was set to 24th of February.
Coincidentally, the poll platform began the mass sending of questionnaires to respondents at the time when Ukrainian cities were attacked by Russian troops. Despite the harsh conditions, the respondents have answered our questions. That gave us the opportunity to compare the responses of Ukrainians on the same questions at the end of January and at the two first days of Russian troops' invasion.
Note: This research there represents the responses of the internet-auditorium of Ukraine, i.e. it includes opinions of Ukrainian Internet-users, including users of different types of messengers (Viber, Telegram, Messenger). This consists of about 80% of Ukrainian citizens at the age of more than 18 years old. The Industrial Television Committee estimates that 80% of Ukrainians older than 18 y.o. were Internet-users.
For maximum objectivity of results, we have processed the responses of respondents on sex, lacation and type of living, and age between 18 to 59 y.o. Assuming that at this age range the vast majority of citizens of Ukraine use the Internet, we can consider the results of this poll are represent the opinion of Ukrainian citizens aged from 18 to 59 y.o.
Emotional condition of Ukrainians. Hope does not die but transforms
The shift of mass emotions of Ukrainians at the first days of war comparing to the end of Jan 2022
Fear for tomorrow
There were 33% of respondents who were living with fear for tomorrow at the end of Jan, and 47% of respondents who were living with fear for the future at the end of Feb.
In the questionnaire set to reveal mass emotions we offer to indicate the reason for the selected emotion from the options offered or write your own answer. The 18% of respondents were living with fear, because of “tomorrow they will have nothing to live on”, this percentage is almost unchanged from the previous survey (at the end of January the 17% of Internet-users had chosen the same option of response).
The same 18% had chosen the option “the country is falling apart and there's nothing I can do about it” which is a third more than the results of the previous survey at the end of January.
The 11% of respondents themselves had written the reason why they live in fear of tomorrow. Almost all of these people shared their fear of war. Here are just a few phrases from hundreds of entries. Spelling and punctuation preserved. The full list can be read here.
You live in fear because of:
"I'm afraid that because of the war, tomorrow may not come!" (male, 30-44 years old, resident of Cherkasy region)
“Attack of the Russian Federation, war fuc....” (male, 45-59 years old, resident of a village, Donetsk region)
"Because I can die at the hands of a Russian" (male, 18-29 years old, villager, Chernivtsi region.)
“Fear of occupation” (woman, 45-59 years old, resident of the city, Chernihiv region)
“War is breaking out 😭😭😭” (woman, 45-59 years old, village resident, Lviv region)
“I want to live” (woman, 18-29 years old, resident of the city, Poltava region)
"Because the country is at war!" (female, 18-29 years old, resident of the village, Ternopil region)
Hope for tomorrow. After the start of the bombing of Ukrainian cities, the number of respondents living with hope for tomorrow dropped sharply: from 59% at the end of January to 47% at the end of February.
There have been changes in the causes of the emotion of hope: the number of respondents living with optimism has increased, because “Ukraine is developing in the right direction” (from 29% to 35% of all respondents). Three times, from 12% to 4% of all respondents, the number of people who can be called “my hut on the edge” decreased, as they chose the reason for their hope for tomorrow: “everything is fine in my life, the rest does not bother me ".
In the first days of the war, 53% of women and only 36% of men lived with fear of tomorrow.
Ukrainians aged 45-59 are much less likely than the younger generation aged 18-29 to experience fear of tomorrow. But they more often answered that they live with a feeling of "humiliation of dignity." Among the reasons for humiliation, they most often named the war and Russia's treacherous attack on Ukraine.
Refuse to leave Ukraine
If at the end of January a third of the Internet audience (30%) wanted to go abroad, mainly to work, and 10% of all respondents wanted to leave forever, then with the outbreak of the war, Ukrainians were half as likely to say that they wanted to leave the country.
Trust in the President
At the end of January 2022, slightly more than half of the Internet audience of Ukraine answered that they trust Volodymyr Zelensky. During the first two days of the military aggression of the Russians, the confidence in the President grew to the level of his support by voters in the second round.
On February 24-25, the faith of Ukrainians in the fight against corruption grew
Love at the beginning of the war
In our scheduled poll for February 24-25, there was another question, natural for peacetime and unexpected for military time. On the eve of March 8, we wanted to know how many Ukrainians live in love. So we asked: “Are you in love right now?”
It turned out that even in the terrible days of the war, people remember love. Two-thirds of respondents (69.5%!) answered that they are now in love.
See full results of survey