KYIV. Dec 7 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The involvement of businessmen in the fight against corruption can seriously affect the situation in this area, and entrepreneurs need to show a personal example, Executive Director at Transparency International Ukraine Yaroslav Yurchyshyn has said.

"The Ukrainians already understand that without their participation the fight against corruption will not be effective. On the other hand, they do not understand how [to participate in this process]. We believe that there are several categories of the population that can critically affect the situation. These are entrepreneurs and business representatives who work most closely with the state and with the sphere most susceptible to corruption," he said at a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine on Thursday.

Yurchyshyn spoke about the launch of the second part of the communication campaign "I Don't Give Bribes," which already includes over a hundred stories of ordinary Ukrainians that they do not give bribes.

"How can we unite at least 10% of people who are ready to fight corruption? If business owners, using their example, demonstrate to employees that they can live without corruption schemes, this will be one of the main aspects. Fighting corruption anonymously is ineffective. Every successful case of the struggle should be made public. This has become the basis of our campaign," he said.

Director of the Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Foundation Iryna Bekeshkina, in turn, noted that according to a survey conducted by the foundation together with the Ukrainian Sociology Service, most Ukrainians believe that the main problem in the country is corruption.

"Over half believe that this is the most serious problem. A further 36% consider it simply a serious problem. They consider the method of [imprisonment] as the main way to overcome corruption, but about a third of the population has been giving bribes over the past few years. Some 54% paid for medical services, and 75% gave money or valuables directly to the doctor," she said.

According to the survey, only 30% of respondents believe that corruption in the country can be overcome, and almost 30% believe that it cannot.

According to Ukrainians, today the fight against corruption does not yield any results, because fighters with corruption themselves are corrupt (49%), because no one is punished for corruption (40.4%), and because this phenomenon is rooted (40.8%).

At the same time, most of them are not ready to join the fight against corruption. Some 50% are sure that citizens and public organizations should become more actively involved in this struggle, while only 23% are ready to join in person, and 60% are not ready.

The survey was conducted in September-October 2017 in all regions of Ukraine, except for Donetsk and Luhansk regions and Crimea. A total of 2,000 people were interviewed. The poll's margin of error does not exceed 2.3%.