Ukraine

- Far from politics and its calculations, the Russian war imposed on Ukraine a new reality that changed the fundamental view of Ukrainians towards Russia and their relations with the Russians, including many social, economic, cultural and other aspects.

Opinion polls carried out by Ukrainian research centers, especially those that compare today's and yesterday's figures, reflect the size of the rift and the distances in various fields.


We are neither brothers nor brothers

According to an opinion poll conducted by the Ukrainian research group “Rating” (the rating), 91% of Ukrainians today believe that they do not share brotherly relations with the Russians, as officials in both countries used to talk before 2014, while 56% of them in July 2021 He saw the Russians and the Ukrainians as "one people".

64% of Ukrainians believe that it is "impossible to restore friendly relations with the Russians" while, a month ago, 42% thought this was possible, but only after 20-30 years.

Even with regard to speaking Russian in the Ukrainian street, which was divided between supporters and opponents, 84% of Ukrainians today believe that Ukrainian is the only language of the country, and it should remain so in all areas of official and popular usage.

Ukrainians rush to the main railway station in Kyiv to escape Russian bombing (Anatolia)

towards a greater rupture

According to the Razumkov Center for Studies, 90% of Ukrainians support depriving pro-Russian opposition parties and deputies of their parliamentary seats, and 86% support imposing a total ban on the activities of these forces in the country.

According to the Sofia Center for Economic Studies, 81% of Ukrainians believe that their country's government should impose more taxes on Ukrainian companies that continue to operate in Russia, and support the idea of ​​confiscating and nationalizing the latter's property in the country, which Prime Minister Denis Shmyal alluded to.

According to the "Rating" group, 74% believe that the Orthodox Church in Ukraine should completely sever its relations with the Moscow Patriarchate, and switch to the "Ukrainian Autonomous Church" announced at the end of 2018.

Greater pride in belonging

The group's poll shows that 80% of Ukrainians are proud today of their state and nationality, while the proportion of pride did not exceed 34%, according to the result of a survey on this matter in August 2021.

In the same context, Ukrainians express their identity as "Ukrainian" by 98%, and it was 75% in August, while others classify themselves as "European" by 57%, after 27% saw themselves in this perspective.

As for loyalty and pride in the common Soviet past with Russia, it declined in less than a year from 21 to 7%.

According to the statistics of the "Razumkov" Center for Studies, 80% of the remaining citizens of Ukraine participate - in one way or another - in the defense of their country, whether by fighting, donation, volunteer work or otherwise, and the same percentage is "satisfied" with the work of the government, local authorities and security services.


Politics, greed, and silence

Commenting on these figures, experts believe that "politics and greed" are two main reasons for the rupture that the relations between the peoples of the two countries have reached, but populism is not exempt from its guilt either.

Sociology expert at the "Razumkov Center", Mikhailo Mishenko, told Al Jazeera Net, "We know that it is a war and Putin's ambitions in our country, but the silence of the Russians, and their blind support for their president, is an unforgivable sin for Ukraine today."

"After 2014, Ukraine moved further away from the orbit of the Russian Federation than ever before, and in 2022 he confirmed that it would never return to it, neither voluntarily nor involuntarily," Mishchenko said.


"The war marked the end of the line of Ukraine's relations with Russia, as long as Putin and his entourage are in power," he added.