Ukrainians have become more united in their views on Russia since the 2022 invasion

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2025-01-22 11:01

International

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Ukrainians have become more united in their views on Russia since the 2022 invasion according to international researchers. According to the team, survey data from Ukraine and Belarus was used to determine attitudes towards the Russian government before and after the invasion. Where previously differences were seen between groups of different ages, social identities and religions, these have reduced. The authors say this national scale evidence suggests experiencing a collective threat can override longstanding divisions.

Media release

From: The Royal Society

The Russian invasion of 2022 led to a unification in Ukrainian attitudes towards Russia and the West. The transformation was remarkable in both swiftness and in magnitude. Up until this time, including previous incursions by Russia in 2014, attitudes in Ukraine about Russia had been closely tied to age/generation, social identity and cultural heritage, in a country that has been divided between Europe and Russia for centuries. Our study provides rare, nation-scale evidence that shared experience of collective threat, over-ride long-standing, deep-seated divisions.

Journal/
conference: Royal Society Open Science

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: University of Tennessee, USA

Funder: This research was supported through the Minerva Research Initiative in partnership with the Office of Naval Research (Grant: N000142012618): ‘Monitoring the Content and Measuring the Effectiveness of Russian Disinformation and Propaganda Campaigns in Selected Former Soviet Union States.’

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