A third of Ukrainians believe that there is a lack of democracy during the war – survey

In the conditions of a full-scale war and martial law, 35% of Ukrainian citizens believe that there is not enough democracy in the country. At the same time, 36% are convinced that the level of democracy corresponds to the current circumstances, and 16% believe that it is even too much.

This is evidenced by survey data of the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS).

Sociologists give the following formulation: “Given that there is now a war and martial law, 36% believe that there is as much democracy in the country as there should be in such conditions. Another 16% believe that there is even too much democracy. At the same time, a third of Ukrainians (35%) believe that there is not enough democracy now. The remaining 14% could not make up their mind.”

Those respondents who declared a lack of democracy were asked an additional open question about the reasons for such an assessment. Most often, people explained this by the impossibility of criticizing the government or restrictions on freedom of speech (19%), the activities of the TCC (17%), ignoring the interests of ordinary citizens or their insecurity (16%), lawlessness, violation of laws and excess of authority by the authorities (15%), as well as corruption (15%).

KMIS separately noted that only 1% of respondents cited the lack of elections as a reason. It is also emphasized that in terms of the entire population, about 6% are those who believe that democracy is insufficient precisely because of the actions of the TCC.

The research was conducted from January 23 to 29 using the method of telephone interviews based on a random sample of mobile numbers. 1003 respondents over the age of 18 who at the time of the study lived in the territories controlled by the government of Ukraine were interviewed. The sample did not include residents of temporarily occupied territories, although some of the participants were internally displaced persons. Citizens who left abroad after February 24, 2022 were also not interviewed.

Under normal conditions, the statistical error of such a sample (with a probability of 0.95 and taking into account the design effect of 1.3) does not exceed 4.1%. At the same time, an experimental approach was used for the question of trust in President Volodymyr Zelenskyi: half of the respondents were asked a direct question, and the other half – the “imagined acquaintance” method. So for this indicator, the error does not exceed 5.8%.

Sociologists add that in the conditions of war, a certain systematic deviation is added to the formal error, but the obtained results, in their opinion, remain sufficiently representative for the analysis of public sentiments.

According to the data poll conducted by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) from January 23 to 29, 2026, 61% of Ukrainians express trust President Volodymyr Zelenskyi, while 33% do not.

According to the results of polls conducted in December, the level of trust in Zaluzhnyi is about 75.7%, which indicates his popularity.

Most Ukrainians believe that the level corruption in the country increased after the full-scale invasion of Russia. These are the results showed survey of the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS), according to which 67% of respondents feel an increase in corruption.