For a family waiting for demobilization or the return of a prisoner, the question "when will the war end" requires no sociological confirmation. But when the same question is asked to 2,502 Ukrainians from different regions, a picture emerges of how society balances priorities between peace and justice within the country.
The results of a survey conducted by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) for the National Democratic Institute (NDI) in March were published on August 5. Negotiations and ending the war were named the most important national issue by 46% of respondents. Corruption — 37%. The situation at the front and defense — 32%. The economy — 22%.
What these figures conceal
The gap between the first and second point is only 9 percentage points. This is not indifference to corruption amid war, but two parallel demands that do not cancel each other out. The researchers directly recorded this conclusion: "Demands for peace, security, justice, fighting corruption, and socio-economic stability clearly coexist".
It is significant that an April KIIS study — conducted at the institute's own initiative, not on commission from the NDI — showed an even sharper result. When respondents were offered a choice between Russian aggression and corruption as the greater threat to the state, some Ukrainians leaned toward the latter. This does not mean people underestimate the war: in open-ended questions without suggested answers, they themselves name war as the main threat.
Dynamics of concern
Comparison with February 2026 shows a noticeable change in proportions. Then 65% of Ukrainians named the war as the biggest challenge, and corruption only 29%. A difference of 36 points. In the new survey with different methodology, the gap narrowed to 9 points. Even accounting for the fact that question wording differed, the trend is unambiguous: attention to corruption grows as society becomes accustomed to living in a state of prolonged war.
Protests against restrictions on anti-corruption bodies a year ago showed that people's willingness to take to the streets for justice does not disappear even during active combat operations.
Why this matters for ending the war
Ukraine is already engaged in a discussion about possible scenarios for ending combat operations and their consequences. KIIS sociology suggests that how society perceives peace terms will depend not only on territorial or security issues, but also on whether the fight against corruption continues parallel to negotiations. If the state reaches a peace agreement but society feels that justice within the country remains an unrealized demand, this could become a source of internal tension already in peacetime.
Military officer and journalist Pavlo Kazarin warned of the risks of social division if the war ends on terms that some citizens perceive as defeat. KIIS data adds another dimension to this: division could arise not only around the terms of peace, but also around how honest the state turns out to be when signing these terms.
The study was conducted via telephone survey in March, with a random margin of error not exceeding 2.6%. Residents of territories occupied by Russia before February 24, 2022, were not included in the sample, while residents of "newly occupied" regions were surveyed only if safe to do so.
The question for the coming months: is Ukrainian authorities capable of maintaining two fronts simultaneously — negotiations to end the war and genuine anti-corruption investigations — without one process overshadowing the other?
