YouTube: “The year in review with Yevhen Golovakha”

The YouTube channel of the well-known political scientist and public figure Ihor Yakovenko, who is in open opposition to the Kremlin and lives in emigration, has published his interview with the Director of the Institute of Sociology of the NAS of Ukraine, Corresponding Member of the NAS of Ukraine, Doctor of Philosophical Sciences, Professor Yevhen Golovakha.

This engaging conversation began with the professor, looking back on 2024, pointing to the fact that surprised him perhaps most of all: the data of a comparative study by the Rating group recorded a fairly high level of optimism among Ukrainians compared with data from other European countries. More than half of Ukrainians feel hope, though with anxiety too. The research by Serhii Dembitskyi conducted at our Institute showed that the level of distress has risen and now stands at 27%. But the majority are holding on. This testifies to a fairly high level of resilience in our society.

The interlocutors then discussed the levelling-out of the positions of the population of Ukraine's various regions on the key geostrategic orientations towards integration into the EU, movement towards NATO, attitudes to language and so on. A certain difference in the data by region does still exist. Practically the whole of Ukraine has been under missile and drone strikes for three years, and that too affects mass attitudes.

Yevhen Golovakha said that he is somewhat surprised by the high level of hope many Ukrainians place in Trump's possible efforts to end the hot phase of the war.

This is a kind of unrealistic optimism. A straw to clutch at while waiting for a “black swan” — an unexpected event that might radically change the situation.

The sociologist also observed that surveys are yielding fewer positive answers, yet negativity is not growing significantly, because many people move into a position of indeterminacy about their views and stance.

The interlocutors also discussed the problems of distrust in surveys in Russia, the share of respondents refusing to answer, the tendency of some respondents to give a more acceptable point of view, and a number of other interesting problems such as the spiral of silence and the likely scenarios for how events may develop.

In closing, the head of the Institute expressed deep concern that for years Russia has been corroding human civilisation by constantly resorting, including on the international stage, to bribery, blackmail, provocation, the murder of opposition figures, massive disinformation, slander, falsification and other disreputable actions, and by suppressing freedom of speech and freedom of research, sociological research included, in its own country.

The interviewer thanked the Ukrainian sociologist for an interesting conversation and expressed the hope of further meetings to “compare notes”. Judging by the comments under the video, viewers liked the conversation and thought highly of the scholar's objective analysis and position.

Read in full here:

Watch the video on YouTube