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

During July 25-August 3, 2025, the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) conducted a survey of Kyiv residents at the request of the public organization Center for Strategic Communications "Forum". By the method of telephone interviews (computer-assistedtelephoneinterviews, CATI) based on a random sample of mobile phone numbers804 residents of Kyiv were interviewed. The survey was conducted with adult (aged 18 and older) residents of the city who were living in the city at the time of the survey (including IDPs permanently residing in Kyiv).

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 4.6% for indicators close to 50%, 4.0% for indicators close to 25%, 2.8% for indicators close to 10%, 2.0% 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.

Among Kyiv residents, 82% believe that Ukraine has not done enough to prepare for an invasion in 2022 (46% of them believe that it is absolutely not enough, and 36% believe that something has been done, but still mostly not enough). Believe that Ukraine has done enough – 16%.

Graph 1. Western intelligence agencies have been publicly warning since early November 2021 that Russia is preparing a large-scale attack on Ukraine. In your opinion, our country has done enough to prepare for such an attack during this time?

Respondents who believe that Ukraine has not done enough were asked an additional question about why it failed to prepare. Respondents were offered several answers and we asked them to choose up to two of them.

So, the vast majority of those who believe that Ukraine has not done enough say, first of all, that the political authorities have failed to make the necessary efforts (72%). Other reasons were mentioned less frequently: the population's own disbelief in the invasion (30%), the fact that the leadership of the Armed Forces of Ukraine was unable to make an effort (20%), too many resources in Russia (17%), insufficient support from the West (16%).

Graph 2. In your opinion, for what reasons was Ukraine unprepared for the invasion? No more than 2 answer options.

% among those who believe that Ukraine was not sufficiently prepared

A. Hrushetskyi, comments on the survey results:

Ukrainians will likely argue for a very long time about the country's optimal strategy of action on the eve of the full-scale invasion of 2022. Behind these discussions, one can see both a fair desire to punish those who are objectively guilty and the identification of weaknesses in order to take this into account for the future (and, of course, to avoid a repetition).

At the same time, it is important that these discussions do not go beyond constructive frameworks, do not turn into emotional settling of scores, and do not pursue the political goal of increasing one's own ratings by speculating on complex and sensitive issues. For Ukraine now (as in previous years), it is critically important to maintain unity and beneficial cooperation between all parties.

Annex 1. Formulation of questions from the questionnaire

Western intelligence agencies have been publicly warning since early November 2021 that Russia is preparing a large-scale attack on Ukraine. In your opinion, our country has done enough to prepare for such an attack during this time? ONE ANSWER

[IF 3 OR 4]In your opinion, for what reasons was Ukraine unprepared for the invasion? No more than 2 answers. RANDOMIZATION OF READING ORDER