As many as 70% of Ukrainians have friends or family who have fought or are currently fighting at the front line since February 2022, according to a poll by the Sociological Group Rating and the Veterans Affairs Ministry published on March 13.
In July 2022, 54% of Ukrainians said they had friends or family who had gained front-line experience since February 2022. This is similar to the number of respondents, at 55%, who said they had a friend or relative who fought for Ukraine between 2014 and 2021.
In August 2023, then-Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said that around a million Ukrainians have become combat veterans since the Russian invasion of Donbas in 2014.
The respondents also voiced extremely high trust in the military, with 94% trusting military personnel and veterans, while 41% believed that they will become veterans in the future.
Men were far more likely to answer that they believe they will become a veteran in the future, with 63% of men agreeing with this statement, compared to 23% of women.
In terms of challenges faced by veterans who return from war, respondents indicated they believed psychological instability, problems with physical health and accessing medical care, and a lack of inclusivity for people with disabilities to be the most likely risks.
Most respondents, or 64%, said that the state is not fulfilling its obligations to veterans, a sharp drop from August 2022, when just 19% of respondents said the state is not fulfilling its obligations to veterans.
Igor Kossov
