Seventy-six percent of the residents of Ukraine believe the situation in the country is developing in the wrong direction and over half of them said they are not ready to personally defend their rights and interests by participating in protests, a study published on the website of the sociological group Rating shows.

Rating said in a press release posted on its site on Tuesday that 13% of the respondents believe affairs in Ukraine are developing in the right direction and one out of every ten respondents is undecided. People who live in the western parts of the country and young people tend to be more positive about the situation in the country, the study shows.

According to the press release, 54% of respondents said they are not ready to personally defend their rights and interests by participating in protests, 36% said they are ready to do that, and one of every ten respondents was undecided. The percentage of respondents who are ready to actively defend their rights is the highest in the western and central parts of the country and among young and middle-aged people.

Over half of respondents (53%) believe the military conflict in eastern Ukraine is a very important problem. Over 45% are concerned about the low level of wages or pensions and the increasing prices for housing and utilities. More than one-third of the respondents believe the increase of prices on primary goods and inflation are an important problem. One-fourth of respondents mentioned bribery, corruption among the authorities, absence of work and unemployment as important problems.

"The importance of such issues as the low level of wages/pensions, the increase of prices on primary goods, and also bribery and corruption in the central administration have increased in the past two years. The importance of the increase of tariffs on housing and utility services decreased considerably (from 70% to 45%)," the report said.

According to the study, people living in western Ukraine are relatively more concerned about the military conflict in Donbas and corruption in the central administration and residents of the southern and eastern regions of the country are more concerned about the low level of wages and pensions and the growing tariffs on housing and utilities.

The study surveyed 2,000 respondents aged 18 and older on May 12-20, 2017. Their selection was representative in terms of age, gender, region and settlement type. It was conducted via a face-to-face interview. The margin of error does not exceed 2.2%.