A new poll conducted in Ukraine shows a majority of the country’s residents see little progress being made by the government on the key issues of tackling corruption and improving the economy.
The survey, undertaken by the International Republican Institute and funded by the Canadian government, was based on face-to-face interviews with over 2,000 respondents from across all regions of Ukraine in late September and early October. Separatist militant-controlled areas of the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts and Russian-occupied Crimea were not included.
“This poll reinforces the trend of public frustration that we’ve seen in previous polls, and indicates that the window of opportunity for the government to build public support is rapidly closing,” according to Stephen Nix, the International Republican Institute’s Eurasia regional director.
In the survey, 72 percent of respondents said they feel the country is going in the wrong direction, a figure which remains largely unchanged from one year ago. Disapproval of the Cabinet of Ministers under the leadership of Prime Minister Volodymyr Hroisman, meanwhile, has increased by 22 points since June and now stands at 79 percent. President Petro Poroshenko, who pledged to bring the country closer to the European Union following pro-democracy protests in 2013-2014, fares little better. Just 20 percent of Ukrainians expressed approval for his performance.
On the economy, the data tells a similar story. Pessimism remains high, with a combined total of 74 percent saying the economic situation has either “worsened somewhat” or “worsened a lot” in the past twelve months. 18 percent of Ukrainians report they need to save money to buy food, and an additional 35 percent report needing to save to buy clothing and shoes.
A key issue remains the fight against graft. On a national level, 42 percent of respondents said anti-corruption reform should be a top priority. “While certain anti-corruption measures, such as the creation of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau, introduced by the government are an important step in the right direction, the government must double-down on these efforts to deliver a better future for the Ukrainian people,” says Nix.
When asked, however, which issues are most important for them personally, Ukrainians ranked corruption in sixth place. The top spot went to control over growth in prices, followed by the military conflict in the Donbas and unemployment.
Looking to the future, the poll suggests differences of opinion across regions of Ukraine remain strong. In the West, 79 percent of respondents said if the country could join just one economic union then it should be the EU. In the east, support for the EU stands at just 24 percent, with 40 percent in favour of joining the Russia-led customs union, whose other members include Belarus and Kazakhstan.
