War isn't the only worrying thing on the minds of most Ukrainians

Ukrainians have had a lot to worry about since Vladimir Putin ordered the Russian Armed Forces to invade Ukraine. But the war isn't the only issue that has worried the Ukrainian population.

A poll published in November 2023 revealed that there were three major  issues at the time besides the war that worried most Ukrainians. These issues included corruption, low salaries, and bad pensions.

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The poll was conducted by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology and it showed that most individuals surveyed were primarily concerned about corruption. Worries about low salaries and pensions came in a close second.  

The pollsters asked their participants to choose three problems from a set of twelve that bothered them the most and a resounding 63% replied corruption was the biggest issue on their minds, which makes a lot of sense. 

Corruption in Ukraine has been at the forefront of a national conversation ever since President Volodymyr Zelensky began his crusade against the country’s problems at the beginning of 2023.

In September 2023, the New York Times reviewed Zelensky’s efforts to root out corruption and reported the turnover that has taken place in the country’s Defense Ministry, which included Minister of Defense, Oleksii Reznikov. 

Zelensky also fired all twenty-four of Ukraine's regional military recruitment officers after government officials discovered widespread corruption and bribery that allegedly helped some Ukrainians avoid being drafted into the military. 

Low salaries and pensions seem like such mundane worries amidst the chaos unfolding across Ukraine but 46% of survey respondents said it was the second most concerning problem that was bothering them. 

Statistics from Statista’s Research Department show the average Ukrainian only makes ₴14,847 hryvnia per month, which is equivalent to about $410.00 USD per month. That means the average Ukrainian only makes roughly $4920.00 a year. 

Other important issues that were top of mind for the Ukrainians surveyed in November 2023 included high utility rates (24%), demographic problems, and the return of displaced refugees abroad (22%), as well as unemployment issues (20%).

What might surprise you about the survey is that issues related to the war with Russia such as the slow reconstruction of Ukraine's destroyed and damaged territories as well as insufficient aid to internally displaced people only worried 8% and 5% of respondents. 

“The poll illustrates that the fight against corruption has remained a central concern, even as Ukrainians are primarily focused on the war,” The Kyiv Independent’s Nate Ostiller wrote about the survey's results. 

Follow-up questioning in the poll showed that 54% of individuals thought the government's newly created anti-corruption bodies—the National Anti-Corruption Bureau and Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office—should be responsible for dealing with Ukraine's corruption issues. 

Nearly half of respondents (43%) also said they thought that the president’s office should be responsible for dealing with corruption in the country while 32% reported that law enforcement like the police, Ukraine’s Security Service, and the prosecutor’s office should be responsible. 

“In all regions, most respondents expect proactive activity from the new anti-corruption infrastructure,” a press release from the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology wrote about their polling data at the time of its release to the public.

Interestingly, Nate Ostiller pointed out that previous polling in the aftermath of Ukraine's Euromaidan Revolution in 2015 found that fewer than 13% of Ukrainians believed that the presidential administration was willing to tackle corruption issues in the country. 

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Taken together, the two surveys revealed that Ukrainians were increasingly coming to think that corruption in their country could be tackled, and much of that opinion change was likely owed to the measures put in place by the Zelensky administration.