Surveys show that Ukraine has fundamentally changed. Today, up to 90% of citizens in every region, including the south and east, support Euro-Atlantic integration, says Anton Hrushetskyi, Executive Director of the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS), UkrInform reports.
Ukraine’s path to NATO membership is widely recognized by all 32 NATO allies as irreversible. However, Ukraine’s accession is not conditional on a peace settlement with Russia and has no fixed timeline or expiration date.
After years of war with Russia, Ukrainian society has overcome longstanding geopolitical divisions.
“We have bridged the main divides. Issues that once split us, NATO, the EU, language, and attitudes toward Russia, now unite us,” the sociologist notes.
Key findings from KIIS:
- Support for NATO and the EU has surged to 80–90% across all regions
- There is a broad consensus that Russia is the aggressor
- Ukrainian remains the sole state language, though one-third still favor optional study of Russian
Researchers emphasize that this is not a fleeting trend but a lasting transformation rooted in 2022. However, they caution that “the work is far from complete,” as some politicians continue to exploit language issues for electoral advantage.
“Society is evolving — Russian is no longer part of our identity but is perceived as just another foreign language,” Hrushetskyi adds.
Earlier, a poll showed that a large majority of Ukrainians, 84%, believe there is no systematic discrimination or restriction of rights against Russian-speaking citizens in Ukraine. Among Russian-speaking Ukrainians themselves, 81% share this view.
The poll’s findings reject Russian propaganda that has systematically fabricated claims of discrimination against Russian speakers in Ukraine to justify its aggression.