Ukrainians' Growing Discontent With the Country's Outlook

Ukrainians have remains steadfast in their belief in victory against Russia through much of the aftermath of the invasion that started in February 2022. Now, two years on, this foundation is starting to shake.

Survey data released by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology shows that while almost 70 percent of Ukrainians said shortly after the beginning of the war that their country was moving in the right direction, this was now diminished to just 44 percent. The share of respondents saying the country was going the wrong way increased in the same time frame from just 16 percent to 46 percent.

After Ukraine's long-awaited counter-offensive fell flat in 2023, the new year started with bad news for the country's defense forces as Russia was winning back territory amid resupply issues from Ukraine's Western allies.

The growing discontent is also showing in other surveys by the institute, albeit slower. Also in February, only 60 percent of Ukrainians said their country would definitely win the war and 29 percent said that it likely would. This is a low result for Ukraine considering that in May 2022, 80 percent were certain of victory and a further 15 percent rather expected it. While in May 2022, 90 percent of Ukrainians said they trusted President Wolodymyr Zelensky, this had changed to just 60 percent this month. 69 percent still said that it was the right call to cancel the elections this year and for Zelensky to stay in power until after the end of martial law.