The balance of Ukrainians’ attitudes towards most Western countries has risen significantly compared with September 2025. Russia is the clear leader in terms of negative perceptions, with a balance of minus 90.5%. These findings are based on a sociological survey commissioned by the Kyiv Security Forum.

The sentiment balance regarding the US (the difference between positive and negative assessments) stands at +33.4% (47.1% – mostly positive, 16.8% – entirely positive). Compared to September 2025, the figure has fallen slightly – at that time, the balance stood at +46.6%.

The balance of opinion regarding the European Union stands at +63.4% (55.5% – mostly positive, 23.6% – entirely positive). In September 2025, the balance was +79.2%.

The balance of attitudes towards NATO stands at +39.9% (48.8% – mostly positive, 16.2% – entirely positive). Compared to September 2025, the figure has fallen by 21.9% – at that time, the balance stood at +61.8%.

Leaders in positive attitudes

Respondents most often express a positive attitude towards the Scandinavian and Baltic countries. Top leaders: Sweden (balance +91.6%), Estonia (+88.6%), Lithuania (+88%), Denmark (+87.7%), the Netherlands (+87.7%), Norway (+87.6%), Latvia (+87.5%), Finland (+85.9%), and Canada (+88.3%). Compared to September 2025, attitudes towards all these countries have improved.

Among other European countries, France (+86.1%), Germany (+82.3%), Moldova (+82.1%), Italy (+81.9%), the United Kingdom (+80.3%) and the Czech Republic (77.2%) also recorded high figures.

Poland recorded a balance of +75.1% – an increase of 22% compared to September 2025 (+53.1%). Romania recorded a balance of +50.5% – a significant increase of 21.9 percentage points (in September 2025, the balance was +28.6%).

There was a marked increase in positive attitudes towards Japan – a balance of +77.5%. Compared to September 2025, the figure rose by 24.8 percentage points (it was +52.7% at that time).

Other countries

Turkey recorded a balance of +56.7%, Slovakia +30.4%, and Israel +23.3%.

Among European countries, Hungary has the lowest balance – minus 29.1%, although compared to September 2025, the figure has improved by 15.7 percentage points (it was minus 44.8% then).

Outsiders

The worst attitude was recorded towards Russia – a balance of minus 90.5%. Towards Belarus – minus 64.3%, towards Iran – minus 62.5%.

Attitudes towards China have improved slightly – the balance stands at minus 33.2%. This represents an increase of 37.1 percentage points compared to September 2025, when the balance was minus 70.3%.

The full text of the study will be presented at the Kyiv Security Forum on April 23.

The sociological survey was conducted by the Razumkov Centre on commission from the Kyiv Security Forum between 2 and 8 April 2026 using face-to-face interviews. A total of 1,200 respondents aged 18 and over were surveyed in the Vinnytsia, Volyn, Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Zhytomyr, Zakarpattia, Zaporizhzhia, Ivano-Frankivsk, Kyiv, Kirovohrad, Lviv, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Poltava, Rivne, Sumy, Ternopil, Kharkiv, Kherson, Khmelnytskyi, Cherkasy, Chernihiv, and Chernivtsi regions, and the city of Kyiv (only in those territories controlled by the Ukrainian government and where no hostilities are taking place). The theoretical margin of error does not exceed 2.9%.