Most Ukrainians consider territorial integrity and sovereignty more important than welfare – survey
A survey has shown that most Ukrainians – 48% and 59% respectively – prioritise the country's territorial integrity and sovereignty over welfare.
Ukrainska Pravda
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A survey has shown that most Ukrainians – 48% and 59% respectively – prioritise the country's territorial integrity and sovereignty over welfare.
Source:asurveyby the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS), conducted on 7 May-3 June 2026
Details:Sociologists posed two pairs of questions to respondents. In one case, they contrasted welfare with territorial integrity; in the other, welfare with sovereignty and independence. "We have divided them because more Ukrainians are ready to discuss temporary territorial losses than the issue of sovereignty and independence of Ukraine," KIIS noted.
In the pair concerning territorial integrity, 40% prioritise the welfare of the population, while 48% prioritise territorial integrity. In other words, more respondents consider territorial integrity more important.
At the same time, sociologists note that this preference is relatively slight.
However, in the second pair, a clear majority – 59% – consider sovereignty and independence more important than welfare. Still, a fairly large share (29%) consider welfare more important than sovereignty and independence.
KIIS question: Which of these is more important for Ukraine?
"Some experts may rightly point out that the opposition of welfare and, for example, sovereignty is to some extent artificial, since without sovereignty there will be no welfare. Having given up sovereignty, people will ultimately have neither sovereignty nor welfare. However, it should be taken into account that part of Russian propaganda and information warfare is to convince Ukrainians (and even more broadly, Europeans as well) that there is no need to hold on to sovereignty, that it is possible to 'give it up' a little, but at the same time receive a 'reward' in the form of a better standard of living. Therefore, such a dangerous construct fully exists in the minds of some citizens and it is important to monitor how widespread it is,"the sociologists explained.
For reference:KIIS's nationwide public opinion survey was conducted from 7 May to 3 June 2026 by telephone interview based on a random sample of mobile phone numbers in all government-controlled regions of Ukraine.
A total of 1,000 respondents aged 18 and older, residing in government-controlled territory of Ukraine at the time of the survey, were interviewed.
Formally, under normal circumstances, the statistical error of such a sample (with a probability of 0.95 and taking into account the design effect of 1.3) did not exceed 4.1% for indicators close to 50%, 3.5% for indicators close to 25%, 2.5% for indicators close to 10% and 1.8% for indicators close to 5%.
Under wartime conditions, in addition to the stated formal margin of error, a certain systematic deviation should also be factored in.
