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said Ukraine’s investment climate worsened in the second half of 2020, compared to the first half. Looking ahead, 45% predicted the climate will get worse in 2021, 45% said it will not change, and 10% said it will get better.
Zelenskiy is the political disappointment of 2020. According to a new sociological survey from the Razumkov Center, 20% of respondents from across Ukraine named Zelenskiy as “politician of the year” — but a much greater portion, 42%, deemed him the political “disappointment of 2020.” At the same time, distrust in Ukraine’s parliament and cabinet is incredibly high — 75% and 76%, respectively. Only 20% of respondents deemed the current government better than the previous one; 30% held the opposite opinion and 41% said it’s no different than the last. These negative approval ratings align with the general assessment given to the current state of affairs in Ukraine. Only 16.5% of respondents felt that the country is moving in the right direction, whereas two-thirds (67%) said things are going the wrong way. Notably, these figures are a far cry from the 2019 results. According to last year’s survey, 46% of respondents named Zelenskiy as politician of the year. Moreover, the relative majority — 44% compared to 36% — believed the country was heading in the right direction. “The vast majority (71%) of citizens believe that in 2020 the situation in the country as a whole has deteriorated, only 3% believe that it has improved and 20% [believe] that it hasn’t changed” the Razumkov Center underscores (in 2019, these figures were quite different: 29%, 14%, and 47%%, respectively). The most common responses regarding areas of “deterioration” were prices and tariffs (81%), the economic situation (76%), the level of stability (74%), and healthcare (72%). On a scale of one to five, respondents ranked Ukraine’s economic situation in 2020 a two. What’s more, there doesn’t appear to be much hope for change in the near future. Only 8% of respondents are expecting the country’s economic situation to improve in the next three months, while 41% are bracing for things to get worse.
11 UKRAINE Country Report January 2021 www.intellinews.com
