The church remains among the leaders in public trust: 65% of Ukrainians express their support for it, according to a poll by the Razumkov Center.
Despite a general decline in trust toward state institutions, a majority of Ukrainians continue to trust the Church. According to a new nationwide survey by the Razumkov Center, 65% of Ukrainians express confidence in the Church, placing it among the country’s most trusted institutions during wartime.
Source: Razumkov Center
The Church Among the Most Trusted Institutions
The survey, conducted on November 11–18, 2025, as part of the research project “Ukraine: Socio-Political Challenges of Transition from War to Peace and Post-War Recovery,” shows that the Church remains within the top tier of trusted public institutions.
The highest levels of trust were recorded for:
Armed Forces of Ukraine — 92%
State Emergency Service — 86%
Volunteer organizations — 81%
Volunteer defense units — 78%
National Guard of Ukraine — 72%
Main Intelligence Directorate — 71%
State Border Guard Service — 70.5%
Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) — 65%
The Church — 65%
Civil society organizations — 64%
Ministry of Defense — 63%
These results indicate that the Church remains one of the few institutions maintaining stable public trust alongside the defense forces and the volunteer movement.
Trust at the Local Level
The study also found that trust slightly outweighs distrust at the local governance level:
Heads of local communities: 50% trust, 42% distrust
Local councils: 49.5% trust, 41% distrust
Ukrainian Parliamentary Commissioner for Human Rights: 48% trust, 34% distrust
For the President of Ukraine, national media, and the State Bureau of Investigations, trust and distrust levels are nearly balanced — approximately 48% trust versus 45% distrust.
Institutions Facing the Highest Distrust
At the same time, the survey recorded a high level of public distrust toward several central government and political institutions. A majority of respondents expressed distrust in:
Verkhovna Rada (Parliament) — 76%
State bureaucracy (officials) — 75%
Government of Ukraine — 73%
Political parties — 71.5%
Judiciary as a whole — 66%
Prosecutor’s Office — 60%
Political opposition — 59%
Government authorities overall — 57%
Distrust also outweighs trust toward anti-corruption bodies, commercial banks, the National Police, and labor unions.
Impact of the War on Public Trust
Analysts at the Razumkov Center note that in the early months of Russia’s full-scale invasion, trust in most state institutions surged as a sign of national unity in the face of external aggression.
Over time, trust in many government bodies has declined compared to the first year of the war, though in several cases it remains higher than in the pre-war period. The most consistently high levels of trust continue to be placed in institutions directly responsible for national defense and in key civil society actors — including the Church.
Survey Methodology
The survey was conducted among 2,008 respondents aged 18 and older. The theoretical margin of error does not exceed 2.3%.
