Some 43% of Ukrainians surveyed "feel ashamed of men who hide from mobilization," but more than half believe that draft dodgers can be understood – "no one wants to die."

This is evidenced by the data of a survey presented at Interfax-Ukraine, conducted by the by the Institute of Social and Political Psychology of the National Academy of Pedagogic Science of Ukraine together with the Association of Political Psychologists of Ukraine on March 1-15, 2024.

As noted in the press release following the survey, public attitudes towards mobilization are now extremely contradictory. On the one hand, more than half of the respondents (53.9%) agree with the statement "Those who avoid mobilization can be understood - no one wants to die." Only 17.2% disagree with this, and another 29% do not have a clear answer. Residents of the southern regions are ready to show the greatest loyalty in this matter, among whom more than 70% believe that those who want to evade mobilization can be understood.

At the same time, sociologists record, "almost 43% of respondents feel ashamed of men who are hiding from mobilization [among residents of the south this figure is almost 50%]."

"A contradictory attitude towards mobilization, which can manifest itself both at the level of public consciousness and in the minds of individual citizens, is a significant challenge for the military-political leadership of the state and will require the use of psychological measures to effectively ensure mobilization," experts conclude.

The survey was conducted using face-to-face interviews. Some 2,000 respondents aged 18 years and older were surveyed in Ukrainian-controlled territory. The sample represents the adult population of Ukraine. The sampling error is 3.2%.

The analysis of regional differences in public opinion is carried out on the basis of uniting the regions into four macro-regions: Western (Volyn, Zakarpattia, Ivano-Frankivsk, Lviv, Rivne, Ternopil, Chernivtsi regions); Central (Vinnytsia, Zhytomyr, Kyiv, Kirovohrad, Poltava, Sumy, Khmelnytsky, Cherkasy, Chernihiv regions, Kyiv); Eastern (Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Zaporizhia, Luhansk, Kharkiv regions); and Southern (Mykolaiv, Odesa, and Kherson regions).