It turns out that many people interpret the sociological ratings incorrectly. Partly it is the fault of sociologists because they can not agree on the standards for the publication of ratings (actually they have agreed on some but not all). This comment is ought to help the readers of our site to understand this matter.

The first thing that is always made public is the percentage of those who will vote for a particular party (or candidate) WITH THE RESPECT TO ALL RESPONDENTS. This is the direct results of the survey, and in relation to these indicators, the sampling errors are calculated. These data are needed to compare different studies, but THEY DO NOT SHOW WHAT PARTIES WILL BE ELECTED TO THE PARLIAMENT.

82% of the Ukrainians estimate the current socio-economic situation as "bad". The main reason for that, according to the Ukrainians, is corruption in high places - so is said by 66% of respondents.

84% of the Ukrainians generally negatively estimate "everything that is happening in the country." Of those who gave this assessment, 56% believe that in this situation, "it is better to go out to protest," 16% believe that "it is better to endure it for the sake of peace." Thus, 40% of the Ukrainians say they are ready to personally take part in protests against the current government.

On the 17^th of November, in the International No Smoking Day, there was a press conference where a project of creating a national service to help smokers quit was presented. This initiative is being implemented by NGO "Zhyttia" (Life) as a part of a joint project of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine and the WHO Country Office, and is supported by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation "Noncommunicable diseases: prevention and health promotion in Ukraine."

According to a poll conducted by the Kiev International Institute of Sociology in September 2016, about half of the population of Ukraine (46%) consider Ukraine's accession to the EU to be the necessary direction of integration, while 13% of the residents support the accession to the Customs Union with Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Armenia. However, almost a third of the population (30%) is set against the EU and against the Customs Union and considers that Ukraine should take an independent way without joining any of these unions.

The attitude of the population of Ukraine toward Russia did not change much, while the attitude of the population of Russia toward Ukraine became worse over the past 6 months. The amount of those Ukrainians who have positive attitude toward Russia decreased by 5 percentage points over the past 2 months what is statistically insignificant (from 42% in May to 40% in September), at the same time in Russia positive attitude over this period decreased by 13 percentage points (from 39% in May to 26% in September). The amount of those Ukrainians who prefer borders with Russia to be closed increased comparing to May 2016 (from 44% to 48%). The amount of those who support this idea in Russia also increased (from 36% to 39%).