Poll: Eurovision fans see Ukraine entering European family

According to a new poll, 92 percent of EU citizens who visited Kyiv during the Eurovision Song Contest in early May would like to return to Ukraine.

And some 64 percent of the EU citizens said they would like to see Ukraine form an even closer relationship with the European Union, the poll found.

The Institute of World Policy, a Ukrainian think tank, commissioned the survey, which was carried out by polling company GfK Ukraine and was entitled “What Did the Guests of Eurovision 2017 See in Ukraine?” The poll was conducted as part of a project run by the U.S. Agency for International Development.

The poll of foreign visitors was conducted from May 9 to 13 – the period that the Eurovision Song Contest was being held in the Ukrainian capital. Up to 1,060 respondents (non-citizens of Ukraine who arrived for the purpose of attending the Eurovision Song Contest) were surveyed via computerized individual interviews. The poll’s margin of error was not given.

Russia blamed

The poll showed that 76 percent of respondents approved of the granting of a visa-free regime to Ukrainians to allow them to travel to the European Union more easily. And despite some blaming Ukraine for the war continuing in the Donbas, the majority of the respondents (66 percent) said Moscow was responsible for the war.

While 24 percent of the respondents said they associated Ukraine primarily with war before they came for Eurovision, some noted that they did not have such an association anymore.

Anatoliy Solovey, head of public diplomacy department of Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry, said that at the beginning of his career about 20 years ago few in the European Union saw Ukraine as part of Europe.

“It’s very important that now Europeans have started to change their minds,” Solovei said at the presentation of the poll in Kyiv on May 24.

Every fourth respondent said the European Union should protect Ukraine from further attack by Russia. They also believe Ukrainians have been fighting for European values and should be rewarded for that. Corruption and Russia’s war against Ukraine are the main reasons that Ukraine is not a part of European Union already, they said.

Since the start of Russia’s military intervention in Ukraine, more than 2,700 Ukrainian soldiers and members of other law enforcement and security bodies have been killed, and up to 9,800 wounded.

Eurovision impressions

While working on the poll, the Institute of World Policy also asked the Eurovision fans which representatives of Ukrainian show business – not necessarily the Eurovision contestants – they associate with Ukraine. Most of the respondents named Jamala (76 percent), Ruslana and Verka Serduchka (25 and 24 percent respectively). This year’s Eurovision contestant from Ukraine O’Torvald was chosen by 16 percent.

When visiting Kyiv, the Eurovision guests were the most impressed by the Ukrainian people, the entertainment infrastructure, and the country’s culture, the survey revealed.

Asked about famous Ukrainians, 53 percent of the respondents named the boxing Klitschko brothers, 7 percent said Shevchenko (though it’s not clear if they were referring to the writer Taras Shevchenko or the football player Andriy Shevchenko) and 6 percent named Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.

Solovey said that the results of the opinion poll echo positive changes in Ukrainian society.

“Kyiv is a very good place to spend the weekend with a family,” he said, adding that he would send the results of the survey to his foreign colleagues.