The vast majority of Ukrainian citizens associate Russia with backwardness and regression, and the European Union with progress and development, according to the survey conducted by the Razumkov Center sociological service on May 23-31, 2023.

"By starting first a 'hybrid' and then a full-scale war against Ukraine, Russia, through its own efforts, significantly spoiled its image not only in Ukraine, but in the etire world. If 84% of respondents in Ukraine associate the EU to a greater extent with progress and development, then 83% of respondents associate Russia with backwardness and regression to a greater extent (in 2017, such an association arose only in 51%), and only 3% of respondents associate Russia with progress and development (in 2017, there were 16% of such associations)," Deputy Director of the Razumkov Center sociological service Mykhailo Mischenko said at the presentation of the survey at Interfax-Ukraine on Monday.

Respondents most often associate with Ukraine the concepts of "democracy," "freedom," "humanity," "welfare," "justice," "respect for individual rights," "stability." However, the association of Ukraine with these concepts is expressed to a much greater extent than in 2017.

According to the press release, the association of Ukraine with a certain concept or value cannot always be explained by the fact that this value is fully realized in Ukraine. In particular, the growth of the association with "stability" cannot be caused by the fact that there was more stability during the war in Ukraine. Rather, for the respondents, this means that they associate the possibility of realizing this value (and others) in the future (near or more distant) precisely with Ukraine.

Meanwhile, some 91% of respondents associate Russia with aggression (in 2017 there were 65.7% of such respondents), with cruelty some 88.6% (it was 56.9%), with dictatorship some 86.8% (it was 59.6%).

Only 0.4% of respondents associate Russia with the concept of "democracy," while 0.6% with "freedom," some 0.3% with "welfare," some 0.7% with "stability," some 1% some "humanity," "justice" and "respect for the rights of the individual."

The survey was conducted using the face-to-face method in Vinnytsia, Volyn, Dnipropetrovsk, Zhytomyr, Zakarpattia, Ivano-Frankivsk, Kyiv, Kirovograd, Lviv, Odesa, Poltava, Rivne, Sumy, Ternopil, Khmelnytsky, Cherkasy, Chernihiv, Chernivtsi regions and Kyiv, as well as in territories controlled by the government of Ukraine and where hostilities are not taking place in Zaporizhia, Mykolaiv, Kharkiv and Kherson regions.

Some 2,020 respondents over the age of 18 have been surveyed. The theoretical sampling error does not exceed 2.3%. Additional systematic deviations of the sample may be due to the consequences of Russian aggression, in particular, the forced evacuation of millions of citizens.

The survey has been conducted within the Matra programme funded by the Embassy of the Netherlands in Ukraine.