After 16 months of a genocidal war, Ukrainians remain united, both as a nation and in terms of their aspirations. Better still, those aspirations remain pro-Western pro-democratic, and pro-liberal.
The highly respected Kyiv International Institute of Sociology and the Washington-based National Democratic Institute just published the results of a survey conducted in May 2023. The findings bode well for Ukraine’s future.
Although 47 percent of Ukrainians say they’ve lost a friend or family member in the war and close to two-thirds claim to have suffered physically and mentally, 87 percent remain bullish about the future. No less important, the same degree of optimism is found in all Ukrainian regions, east, west, north, and south.
Despite the hardships caused by the war, Ukrainians overwhelmingly—95 percent—believe that their country must have a “fully functioning democracy.” And again, the numbers are equally high across the board. Moreover, as befits a democratic country with a strong civil society, 64 percent trust journalists to uncover corruption and 44 percent trust civil society organizations to do so.
Sixty-five percent believe that “LGBT+ people should have the same rights as others.” Fifty-three percent believe that should have the “right to civil partnerships.” Only 9 and 12 percent, respectively, strongly disagree with these propositions.
Not surprisingly, given these values, 92 percent of Ukrainians want to join the European Union by 2030; 89 percent expect to join. Eighty-nine percent want to join NATO by that year, and 85 percent expect to.
The ongoing war has devastated Ukraine, but it appears to have also had a silver lining. Not only have Ukrainians overcome their regional differences and consolidated to form a genuine political nation; not only have the country’s political institutions and leaders survived the Russian assault and arguably thrived under it, but Ukrainians have experienced a radical shift toward the very values that the West endorses and that Russia pointedly rejects. Instead of responding to the horrors of war with less desire for democracy and less liberalism, Ukrainians have done the exact opposite.
They have, in a word, broken with Russia’s baleful influence and shown that they are ready to be full-fledged members of all Western institutions. The EU and NATO would do well to reciprocate Ukraine’s good will.
Perhaps the bureaucrats in Brussels could convince Viktor Orban’s illiberal and increasingly undemocratic Hungary to trade places with Volodymyr Zelensky’s increasingly liberal and democratic Ukraine?
About the Author
Dr. Alexander Motyl is a professor of political science at Rutgers-Newark. A specialist on Ukraine, Russia, and the USSR, and on nationalism, revolutions, empires, and theory, he is the author of 10 books of nonfiction, including Pidsumky imperii (2009); Puti imperii (2004); Imperial Ends: The Decay, Collapse, and Revival of Empires (2001); Revolutions, Nations, Empires: Conceptual Limits and Theoretical Possibilities (1999); Dilemmas of Independence: Ukraine after Totalitarianism (1993); and The Turn to the Right: The Ideological Origins and Development of Ukrainian Nationalism, 1919–1929 (1980); the editor of 15 volumes, including The Encyclopedia of Nationalism (2000) and The Holodomor Reader (2012); and a contributor of dozens of articles to academic and policy journals, newspaper op-ed pages, and magazines. He also has a weekly blog, “Ukraine’s Orange Blues.”
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