Some 90% of polled Ukrainians strive for constructive interaction with Poland regarding the resolution of historical disputes between the countries – for the majority, this issue should be depoliliticized and not be part of interstate relations or a means of domestic mobilization for political points.
This is evidenced by the results of a study conducted by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) on June 17-23, 2026.
"90% of Ukrainians strive for constructive interaction with Poland. The majority (57%) share a pragmatic view that each nation can have its own heroes and other nations should not interfere. Another 33% expect that a consensus view can be achieved through joint commissions of historians, rather than politicians," according to a press release based on the results of the study on the KIIS website on Wednesday.
Sociologists note that the attitude toward this problem is approximately the same in all regions.
"In all regions, the situation is quite similar, and in all regions, the majority of Ukrainians share a pragmatic position (and a significant number share a romantic, conciliatory one [meaning one where historians play the decisive role - IF-U]). And only an insignificant minority in all regions chose confrontational answers," the report says.
In addition, sociologists measured the indicator of attitude toward Poles (minimum social distance – 1 [agree to accept as a family member], maximum – 7 [would not let into Ukraine]). Thus, for almost the entire period from 1994 to 2025, the indicator of attitude toward Poles varied around 4 points or slightly higher, which is a fairly tolerant attitude. As of 2025, the indicator stands at 4.1 points.
"While in 2021 the indicator was 3.7 points, in 2022 (after the invasion) it dropped to 3.0 points, and in 2023 (in September) to 2.9. Factually, in September 2023, Poles ranked second in closeness for Ukrainians (after Ukrainians themselves). These were historically the best indicators for the entire observation period. That is, Ukrainians saw the colossal assistance from Poland and were indeed sincerely grateful," the KIIS press release notes.
The deterioration of the indicator to 4.0 in 2024 and to 4.1 in 2025 is a consequence of actions such as the border blockade from the Polish side, which began at the end of 2023. That is, the worsening of the attitude occurred as a reaction of Ukrainians to such events. As KIIS emphasized, "the deterioration that occurred after 2023 returned the indicators to pre-2022 levels (but not to the worst), meaning it was the end of the romantic period of 2022-2023, but not a fundamental change in attitude toward Poles. The indicators of attitude toward them remain at a level that indicates a completely tolerant attitude."
Separately, sociologists asked a question about the respondents’ attitude toward the activities of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA). Thus, in 2013, 48% of respondents negatively assessed the activities of the OUN-UPA during World War II, only 19% gave positive assessments, and another 22% could not decide (the remaining 11% simply answered "don’t know"). In 2025, only 8% negatively assessed the activities of the OUN-UPA during World War II, while 37% assessed them positively. At the same time, 50% chose the option "hard to say for sure, negatively or positively" (the remaining 5% answered "don’t know"). Compared to 2022, uncertainty became slightly higher and the share of those giving positive assessments decreased, though the share of those negatively assessing the activities of the OUN-UPA remained stably low.
"Thus, now, after the full-scale invasion, a mostly positive perception of the OUN-UPA and their struggle as a whole is observed. (...) However, gaps in awareness about the events of the past are also obvious," the KIIS report notes.
KIIS Executive Director Anton Hrushetsky commented on the study: "The results of our polls show that, firstly, Ukrainian society approaches the issues of historical disputes with Poland quite maturely and constructively. Almost all Ukrainians are against imposing a Polish view of shared history on Ukraine, and at the same time, only a small share of Ukrainians want to impose a Ukrainian view on Poland. For the majority, this issue should be depoliticized and not be part of interstate relations or a means of domestic mobilization to score political points. That is, either each country deals with its own heroes and does not interfere in the affairs of its neighbor, or joint commissions of historians, not politicians, try to form a consensus view."
Hrushetsky also drew attention to the fact that there are no anti-Polish sentiments in Ukrainian society. "Even in 2025, after an election campaign in Poland with anti-Ukrainian slogans, we did not observe a significant deterioration in the attitude toward Poles. In general, in 2022-2023, our data reliably demonstrate an improvement in the attitude toward Poles, which was the result of sincere gratitude of Ukrainians to Poles for the support provided," he emphasized.
"The trend after 2023 represent a cooling off (which was not provoked by the actions of Ukrainians) and a return to the previous, completely normal attitude. Along with this, the majority of Ukrainians are ready to support sending troops to Poland in the event of an attack on it by Russia. Currently, no influential force or authoritative entity in Ukraine builds its communication on anti-Polish hysteria. We see that President V. Zelenskyy, government representatives, opposition representatives, and civil society representatives all emphasize gratitude to the Polish people for the support provided," Hrushetsky said.
"Finally, Ukrainians and Poles have lived side by side for a millennium, and unfortunately, we have both heroic and tragic pages. Each nation has the right to its own heroes, and to its own pain and grievances. Both Ukrainians and Poles can read a long list of claims to each other, and each side will have its own truth. However, for the sake of the future, modern national identity cannot be built on uncompromising claims against a neighbor based on events of the distant past," he emphasized.
"Both nations must look to the future, see the common ground that unites them now. The Russian enemy will only rejoice at discord between Ukrainians and Poles and will try in every way to deepen the crisis in relations. Therefore, the events of the past should be left to specialists, and the elite of each nation must, out of a sense of responsibility to current and future generations, stop using historical issues for purely political purposes (to annoy their opponents in their own society or to mobilize the electorate in their support, building on the image of an ‘enemy’ formed from a neighboring country)," Hrushetsky added.
During June 17-23, 2026, the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) conducted its own all-Ukrainian public opinion poll, adding a question about how historical disputes between Ukraine and Poland should be resolved. A total of 1,005 respondents were interviewed using the method of computer-assisted telephone interviews (CATI) based on a random sample of mobile phone numbers in all regions of Ukraine (government-controlled territory).
The poll was conducted with adult citizens of Ukraine (aged 18 and older) who, at the time of the poll, resided on the territory of Ukraine controlled by the government of Ukraine.
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 1.3) did not exceed 4.1% for indicators close to 50%, 3.5% for indicators close to 25%, 2.5% for indicators close to 10%, and 1.8% for indicators close to 5%.
