Undivided Ukraine: Evidence of Rallying Effects and an Emerging National Consensus

The escalation of Russia’s eight-year war against Ukraine in February 2022 did not produce the outcomes that Russian political elites anticipated. This paper uses almost a decade of public opinion data collected by the Ukrainian agency Info Sapiens and a recent survey conducted by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology to analyze changes in attitudes that can help explain the responses of citizens. We explore how key events have produced rallying effects and changes in behavior. Further, we explore the implications for postwar reconstruction efforts. Our findings suggest that the challenges of the last decade have unified Ukrainians.