By KYIV. Nov 2 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The majority of Ukrainians began to consider it acceptable to criticize the authorities in wartime, although at the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion the situation was different, according to the results of a survey conducted on September 30 through October 13 by Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS).
In May 2022, 68% of Ukrainians believed that all disputes should be postponed, and only 26% insisted that criticism was acceptable. Now, in October 2023, the situation has become diametrically opposite: now 70% of Ukrainians consider it important to criticize possible erroneous decisions of the authorities, and only 25% insist on avoiding any disputes.
In all macro-regions the situation is identical, except for the east of the country, where slightly fewer respondents (62%) indicate the appropriateness and slightly more (31%) indicate the inappropriateness of criticizing the authorities.
“Indeed, in Ukraine there is growing criticism of the actions of the central government (now mainly in the format of criticism of the parliament and the government, while maintaining high support and trust to the president) with a significantly expressed desire for ‘changes.’ Obviously, the most significant factor in such changes in sentiment, when 70% already consider criticism appropriate, is corruption and Ukrainians do not want to hush it up. At the same time, as we showed earlier, 59% still see positive changes in the fight against corruption,” Executive Director of the KIIS Anton Hrushetsky said.
At the same time, he noted that among Ukrainians there is a high demand for unity and they are still against disputes and conflicts, and also do not advocate immediate changes through elections: according to the latest data from the KIIS, 81% of citizens are against holding them.
“Victory remains the priority. Accordingly, this question largely reflects the advisability of constructive criticism of possible erroneous actions of the authorities. Ukrainians want constructive proposals that would correct existing shortcomings and that would bring Ukraine closer to Victory,” Hrushetsky said.
During the survey, 2,007 adult respondents from all Ukrainian-government controlled were interviewed using computer-assisted telephone interviews (CATI). Under normal circumstances, the statistical sampling error (with a probability of 0.95 and a design effect of 1.1) did not exceed 2.4% for indicators of about 50% and 1.1% for indicators of about 5%, but in war conditions a certain amount is added to it systematic deviation.
