90% of Ukrainians believe authorities should be criticised even during war – survey
A total of 90% of Ukrainians believe the authorities should be subject to criticism even during wartime; this indicator is eight percentage points more than in May 2024.
Source: a survey by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) conducted between 19 September and 5 October
Quote: "Only 8% of Ukrainians believe that the government should not be criticized at all (and the share of those who think so has decreased from 13% since 2024). In contrast, 90% agree that criticism of the government should be present (an increase from 81% compared to 2024)."
Details: Most respondents (58% of those 90%) said criticism should be "balanced and constructive so as not to destabilise the situation in the country", while 32% believe it should be "harsh and uncompromising".
KIIS noted that compared to 2024, the share of those advocating for tough criticism has not changed, while the share favouring constructive criticism has increased.
As of early October 2025, 56% of Ukrainians believe there are genuine efforts to fight corruption in Ukraine, the sociologists said.
For reference: The survey was conducted from 19 September to 5 October. Using the method of telephone interviews based on a random sample of mobile numbers, 1,008 respondents aged 18 and older were interviewed. All respondents lived in areas of Ukraine under government control at the time of the survey. Residents of territories temporarily not controlled by the Ukrainian authorities were not included in the sample (although some respondents were internally displaced persons who had moved from occupied areas). The survey also did not include citizens who left Ukraine after 24 February 2022.
Under normal conditions, the statistical margin of error of such a sample (with a probability of 0.95 and taking into account a design effect of 1.3) does not exceed 4.1% for indicators close to 50%, 3.5% for those near 25%, 2.5% for those near 10%, and 1.8% for those near 5%.
Given wartime conditions, in addition to the formal margin of error, certain systematic deviations are possible. However, sociologists note that the obtained results remain highly representative and allow for a fairly reliable analysis of public sentiment.
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