The press release was prepared by Anton Hrushetskyi, executive director of KIIS

From July 23 to August 4, 2025, the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) conducted its own all-Ukrainian public opinion survey "Omnibus", to which, on its own initiative, it added a question about whom Ukrainians sympathize with in the Israel-Iran conflict. By the method of telephone interviews (computer-assistedtelephoneinterviews, CATI) based on a random sample of mobile phone numbers (with random generation of phone numbers and subsequent statistical weighting) in all regions of Ukraine (the territory controlled by the Government of Ukraine), 1,022 respondents were surveyed. The survey was conducted with adult (aged 18 and older) citizens of Ukraine who, at the time of the survey, lived in the territory of Ukraine controlled by the Government of Ukraine. The sample did not include residents of territories temporarily not controlled by the Ukrainian authorities (at the same time, some of the respondents are IDPs who moved from the occupied territories), and the survey was not conducted with citizens who left abroad after February 24, 2022.

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%, 1.8% for indicators close to 5%.

Under conditions of war, in addition to the specified formal error, a certain systematic deviation is added. Factors that may affect the quality of results in "wartime" conditions were previously cited by KIIS.

In general, we believe that the obtained results are still highly representative and allow a fairly reliable analysis of the public moods of the population.

In June 2025, Israel fought a 12-day war with Iran. Iran is an open ally of Russia and the culprit of many deaths and destruction in Ukraine. At the same time, many Ukrainians have critical reservations about the Israeli leadership due to allegedly too close ties with Russia and insufficient support for Ukraine. Therefore, we decided to find out who Ukrainians support more in this conflict.

KIIS has previously asked questions about Israel's relations with its neighbors. For example, in December 2021 and January 2023, KIIS conducted a survey for the Embassy of the State of Israel, which, among other things, asked who Ukrainians support in the diplomatic conflict with Iran. Before the full-scale invasion, 54% did not support any side, 28% supported Israel, and only 1% supported Iran. After the full-scale invasion, especially after Russia used deadly weapons from Iran, by early 2023, 64% supported Israel (and only 1% supported Iran, and 18% did not support any side)[1]. And in December 2023, after the terrorist attack on October 7, the majority of Ukrainians (69%) supported Israel in the conflict with Palestine[2].

Now, in July-August 2025, we repeated the question about the Israel-Iran conflict, but in a slightly more precise wording, in order, in particular, to compare and demonstrate the differences between the Ukrainian and Russian publics (in Russia, the Levada Center received data with this wording[3]). Graph 1 below shows data for Ukraine and Russia.

As can be seen, significantly more Ukrainians sympathize with Israel. So, 42% sympathize with Israel and only 3% with Iran. Do not sympathize with either side – 42%.

Compared to Russians, can be seen that Russians, although more critical of both sides, still have significantly more sympathy for Iran. Only 3% of Russians sympathize with Israel, while 25% sympathize with Iran. In Ukraine, the situation is completely different and Ukrainians are many times more sympathetic to Israel.

Graph 1. In the conflict between Israel and Iran, your sympathies are on their side of…?

In the graph below, the results are shown in terms of region of residence[4]. In all regions, there are more people who support Israel and a minimal number who sympathize with Iran. At the same time, the greatest support for Israel is in the Center of Ukraine.

Graph 2. Sympathies in the conflict between Israel and Iran in terms of region

A. Hrushetskyi, comments on the survey results:

In Ukraine, in the crucible of a harsh war, an inclusive Ukrainian nation is being formed, belonging to which does not depend on region, language or religion. Ukraine is defended by Jews, Muslims, Christians and atheists. One can at least mention the Chief Rabbi of Ukraine Moshe Reuven Azman, who does a lot for the defense of the country (and whose son died defending Ukraine), and one of the spiritual leaders of Muslims Said Ismagilov, who joined the Armed Forces of Ukraine as a combat medic in 2022.

Ukrainians are aware of the need for peaceful and mutually respectful coexistence regardless of religious affiliation, but at the same time they understand the importance of long-term security. The official attitude of the Iranian leadership or Hamas terrorists (here we must emphasize that we are not talking about ordinary Iranians or Palestinians) towards Israel cannot but resemble the open calls of Russians (both in power and among the ordinary population) for the liquidation of the Ukrainian nation. Such rhetoric leaves little space for action other than resistance, and for many Ukrainians the parallels between Israel and Ukraine are obvious. The legendary quote by G. Meir, “It is impossible to negotiate peace with those who came to kill you,” illustrates the situation in both Israel and Ukraine.

Although this, of course, overlaps with the feeling of many Ukrainians that the Israeli leadership is providing insufficient support to Ukraine despite the similarity of the situations the countries find themselves in. In addition, many Ukrainians are concerned about the situation in the Gaza Strip and the fate of the Palestinians in general.

In any case, we hope that our results in Ukraine and the results of the survey in Russia will prove to the leadership and people of Israel that it is Ukrainians (not Russians) who are Israel's natural allies and that Israeli-Ukrainian cooperation has strong potential for both sides.
           

Annex 1. Formulation of questions from the questionnaire

In the conflict between Israel and Iran, your sympathies are on their side of… RANDOMIZATION OF THE ORDER OF STATEMENTS 1-2