Press releases

• 42% of respondents (even when offered different combinations) expect solutions to their personal problems from the three most popular politicians of recent years — Viktor Yushchenko, Yuliya Tymoshenko, and Viktor Yanukovych.
  At the same time, 46% expect solutions from new politicians.
• The demand for new political figures is especially strong in the South, East, and Donbas (around 60%), and weakest in the West, where only about one third of respondents express such expectations.

About half of respondents consider both the joint voting of BYuT with the Party of Regions (48%) and the withdrawal of the NU-NS Bloc from the parliamentary coalition (52%) to be a betrayal of voters. In connection with the situation in the Verkhovna Rada, attitudes toward Viktor Yushchenko worsened among more than half of respondents, and toward Yulia Tymoshenko among about 40% of those surveyed.

• One and a half times fewer respondents believe that this coalition represents the interests of Ukraine.
• The key consequences for Ukraine from the formation of a majority by BYuT and PR were named as the impeachment of the President (32%) and increased dependence on Russia (28%).

• More than two thirds of surveyed residents of Western Ukraine (69%) are to some extent ready to take part in elections to the Verkhovna Rada if they were held in the near future.
• BYuT would be supported by 44% of those who intend to take part in voting. NSNU and People’s Self-Defense would receive 21% (17% + 4%), VO “Svoboda” 6%, and the Party of Regions 6%.

Accordingly, more than three quarters of respondents support the withdrawal of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet from the territory of Ukraine by 2017. Of these, 32% support doing so in the near future. Only 10% of respondents favor extending the presence of the Russian fleet in Sevastopol.

• At the same time, a relative majority (41%) consider V. Yushchenko and Yu. Tymoshenko equally responsible for the collapse of the democratic coalition.
• 17% of respondents name the formation of a BYuT–Party of Regions majority as the best way out of the situation.

16% of respondents are confident that she did this because of personal hostility toward Viktor Yushchenko, while 8% believe it was due to pressure from Russia. At the same time, 18% are convinced that Yulia Tymoshenko was trying to restore order in the country, and 9% believe she was trying to unite the country.

• Only 6% are dissatisfied with the Ukrainian Olympic team’s achievement of 11th place.
• Most respondents do not associate Ukraine’s success at the Olympics with state support for sport, considering that support to be low.

• Ukrainians do not support the actions of either side in the military conflict in Georgia.
• About 20% of respondents support the actions of Russia, and almost the same share support the actions of Georgia.
• People are equally unlikely to believe either that Georgia launched military actions to defend its territorial integrity or that Russia became involved in the conflict to protect the residents of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

• If presidential elections were held today in the five western cities that had previously been the most electorally oriented toward V. Yushchenko and Y. Tymoshenko, less than half of their residents would vote for these two politicians.
• The highest level of support for V. Yushchenko among the surveyed cities is in Lutsk, at only 12%. The highest support for Y. Tymoshenko is in Lviv and Ternopil, at around 40%.
• The combined support for these two politicians does not exceed half of residents in any of the cities. By contrast, the combined support for other politicians in the five western cities is at least one quarter of residents, and in Rivne it is almost 40%.
• Between 2% and 11% of respondents are ready to vote for A. Yatseniuk, between 4% and 7% for O. Tyahnybok, between 3% and 6% for Y. Lutsenko, and 2–3% for V. Lytvyn.

• One third of respondents in the five western cities feel closest to the ideology of national democracy, and almost twice fewer to the ideology of Ukrainian nationalism.
• National democracy appears most uncontested in Lutsk and Rivne. At the same time, in Lviv, Ternopil, and Ivano-Frankivsk, both ideologies are in demand.
• Less than 10% of respondents consider Christian democracy the closest to them, and less than 5% — social democracy, liberalism, socialism, communism, and others.

• 70% of respondents believe that the situation in the country is deteriorating.
• Respondents assess the situation in the city somewhat better, though not by much: 60.3% believe that the situation in the city is deteriorating.
• Only 11% of respondents think that the situation in the city has improved over the last two years, while 28% say that the situation has not changed.

• The main problems that the city authorities should address as a priority were named as road repairs in the city (41.5%), reducing the level of unemployment (26.2%), restraining the growth of utility tariffs (25.8%), and improving the work of municipal housing services (ZHEKs) (24.3%).
• Among the issues mentioned least often (less than 5%) were improving the operation of public transport, regulating trade in the city, and developing residential construction.

• 6% of respondents said that a normal political process is taking place in the country, and another 5% noted significant political transformations.
• On the other hand, more than one third said that chaos and a power vacuum have begun in Ukraine, and the same share feel that the country is in a state of acute political crisis.
• Urban residents place the greatest blame for the political crisis on V. Yushchenko. This view is held by 28% of respondents.

• In Ternopil, Lutsk, and Ivano-Frankivsk, support for BYuT is higher than the combined support for all other political forces. The lowest rating of BYuT is in Rivne, at 32%.
• Second place in the West is shared by Narodnyi soiuz “Nasha Ukraina” and VO “Svoboda”. NSNU is ahead of “Svoboda” in Lutsk, Rivne, and Ivano-Frankivsk, while the opposite situation is observed in Lviv and Ternopil.
• It is interesting that respondents’ confidence that VO “Svoboda” is capable of improving their lives is twice as high as their willingness to support this political force. The obvious reason is uncertainty about whether “Svoboda” will pass the 3% threshold.

• 53% of residents of Rivne are satisfied with the work of the Head of the Regional State Administration Viktor Matchuk, 36% with the Head of the Regional Council Oleksandr Danylchuk, and 36% with the Acting Head of the City Council O. Khmyletskyi.
• The worst attitudes toward local leaders (among residents of the five western regional capitals) are in Lutsk, where 49% are dissatisfied with the activities of Governor M. Romaniuk, 56% with the Head of the Regional Council A. Hrytsiuk, and 66% with Mayor B. Shyba.

• A relative majority of respondents in five western regional capitals would vote in a referendum in favor of joining NATO. The highest support for Euro-Atlantic integration is in Ternopil and Ivano-Frankivsk — about two thirds — while the lowest is in Rivne, at 39%.
• At the same time, fewer than 5% of respondents believe that orientation toward the United States can ensure Ukraine’s best strategic development. According to about 60% of respondents, the best vector for Ukraine is orientation toward Europe.

Only one in seven respondents gives a positive assessment of the actions of the Cabinet of Ministers. 58% of citizens are dissatisfied with the work of the Tymoshenko government (in January this figure was 19%). The majority of respondents do not believe either in the full return of Oschadbank deposits in 2008–2009, or in the abolition of military conscription, or in overcoming inflation.

52% of respondents do not approve of the decrease in the US dollar exchange rate that took place at the end of May. Only 20% consider this decision to be effective. According to the majority of respondents, this decision was driven more by the situation inside the country than by external factors.

• Almost 20% of respondents nationwide consider L. Chernovetskyi the best candidate for the position of Mayor of Kyiv.
• Second place in a nationwide mayoral election would go to V. Klychko with 15%.
• Third place would be shared by O. Turchynov and O. Omelchenko with 7% each.

One third of respondents said this does not matter to them or were unable to answer this question.