Canada took first place in terms of the balance of positive and negative attitudes of Ukrainians among Ukraine's 50 largest trade partners, while China, which is the leader in terms of trade, received the lowest indicator, and the attitude towards Poland significantly worsened, according to the results of a study by the Active Group company and the Experts Club information and analytical center.
According to the published rating, the balance of positive and negative assessments of Canada was plus 73.8 percentage points. Sweden is next - plus 70.6%. p., the Netherlands - 69.7 in. p., Finland and Norway - 69.3 per cent. n., France - 69.1 c. n., Italy - 67.1 c. p., Lithuania - 65.9 years. p., Switzerland and Great Britain - 65.6 per cent. n.
Canada took first place in terms of the balance of positive and negative attitudes of Ukrainians among the 50 largest trade partners of Ukraine, while China, which is the leader in terms of trade, received the lowest indicator, and the attitude towards Poland has significantly worsened, according to the results of a study by Active Group and information and analytical center Experts Club.
According to the published rating, the balance of positive and negative evaluations of Canada was plus 73.8 percentage points. Sweden is next - plus 70.6%. p., the Netherlands - 69.7 in. p., Finland and Norway - 69.3 per cent. n., France - 69.1 c. n., Italy - 67.1 c. p., Lithuania - 65.9 years. p., Switzerland and Great Britain - 65.6 per cent. p.
This indicator is the difference between the shares of positive and negative responses. In particular, 76.3% of respondents have a positive attitude towards Canada, 2.5% have a negative attitude, and 19.2% have a neutral attitude.
The worst balance is recorded for China - minus 25.4%. p.: it is positively evaluated by 18.2% of respondents, negatively by 43.6%, neutrally by 33.9%. India also has negative indicators - minus 14.3%. p., Hungary - minus 12.7 c. p. and Lebanon - minus 9.2 c. p.
Doctor of Sociological Sciences, head of the Kyiv branch of the Sociological Association of Ukraine Olga Bezrukova called the PRC a demonstrative example of the gap between the scale of economic cooperation and the public image of the state.
“We saw that China is the largest economic partner of Ukraine in terms of total turnover, but this in no way translates into a positive public image. This indicates that the citizens of Ukraine clearly distinguish between the pragmatic nature of economic cooperation and the general assessment of the state. Economic dependence and cooperation are not equal to public sympathy for this country," she emphasized at a press conference at the Interfax-Ukraine agency on Tuesday.
One of the most noticeable changes was the deterioration of the attitude towards Poland. If in March 2026 the balance of grades was plus 41.7%. p., then in August positive and negative responses were almost equal, with a slight advantage of negative ones. A positive attitude was expressed by 34.6% of respondents, a negative attitude by 37%, a neutral attitude by 25.4%.
"At the beginning of the invasion, Poland was perceived almost as the main partner. We asked about the rapprochement of Ukraine and Poland, political and economic, even about unification in some kind of joint union, and we saw huge positive results. And here we see: supposedly Poland is still a key partner, but the unification has already been forgotten, we see stable negative", - noted the founder of Active Group Andriy Eremenko.
He linked the worsening of the ratings with the position of a part of the Polish government, which he considers anti-Ukrainian.
At the same time, the balance of attitudes towards Hungary improved from minus 33.6 in. p. in March to minus 12.7 c. in August, although negative estimates still prevail. Regarding the USA, the indicator increased from plus 19.4 to plus 38.4 in. p. 55% of respondents have a positive attitude towards the United States, negative - 16.6%, neutral - 25.6%.
In response to the question of who contributes the most to achieving peace in Ukraine, 44.6% of respondents named the countries of the European Union, the USA - 25.2%, Great Britain - 23.3%, China - 4.1%, India - 1.8%, Brazil - 1% In the question of the priority development of trade and economic relations, the EU countries and Great Britain were chosen by 69.9%, the USA – 11.9%, the PRC – 8.4%.
According to Bezrukova, assessments of the role of the USA in achieving peace remained relatively stable during the three waves of the study.
“General sympathy for the country and assessment of its functionality at the international level are related, but not identical things. countries are multidimensional. A person can change their emotional attitude towards the state, but continue to recognize its international weight," the sociologist explained.
India demonstrates another model: 48.3% of respondents express a neutral attitude towards it, but negative ones prevail among the formed assessments - 31.5% against 17.2% positive.
Economic indicators were presented by the founder of the Experts Club, deputy director of the agency "Interfax-Ukraine", Candidate of Economic Sciences Maksym Urakin. According to the data of the State Customs Service provided by him, in the first half of 2026, Ukraine's turnover amounted to $70.3 billion, exports - $21 billion, imports - $49.3 billion. The negative balance of trade in goods reached $28.3 billion.
"If we compare it with the first half of 2025, there was also an imbalance there, but now exports have increased by about 5%, and imports by almost 30%. That is, the deficit for the year has increased by more than 10 billion dollars. Therefore, it is very important for us to analyze our main partners," he emphasized.
According to the presented materials, trade turnover with China in January-June amounted to about $14.68 billion. Ukraine exported $778 million worth of goods to the PRC, and imported $13.90 billion worth of goods, creating a deficit of approximately $13.12 billion. Poland remained the largest buyer of Ukrainian goods with a volume of $2.38 billion. The second place among export markets was Turkey with $1.78 billion, the third was Italy with $1.28 billion.
In terms of the total volume of trade after China followed by Poland - $7.05 billion, Turkey - $4.90 billion, Germany - $4.48 billion, and the United States - $3.07 billion. Eremenko noted Turkey as an example of a combination of significant turnover and mostly positive perception: 52.3% of respondents are favorable to it, 7.4% are negative.
Urakin separately drew attention to partners whose trade provides Ukraine with a positive balance. In the first half of the year, it was the largest with Spain - $578.1 million, Egypt - $527.1 million, and Moldova - $467.2 million. Followed by Algeria - $309.2 million, the Netherlands - $221.5 million, and Lebanon - $220.5 million. The top ten also included Libya, Tunisia, Iraq, and Yemen.
At the same time, regarding a number of such partners a neutral attitude prevails. Egypt is rated neutral by 61.3% of respondents, Algeria by 65.8%, Tunisia by 67.3%. The participants of the press conference connected this with insufficient awareness of Ukrainians about these states and emphasized the need for more active economic and public diplomacy.
"It is better to develop not only general awareness. First of all, business associations, the Ministry of Economy and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs need to work to develop bilateral relations and improve the balance. In conditions where Ukraine already lacks funding and we live, in fact, at the expense of external loans, with countries where we can have a positive balance, we need to expand cooperation," said Active Group director Oleksandr Pozniy.
Urakin recommended that the embassies accredited in Ukraine ensure full communication in the Ukrainian language, openness to the media and regular information about the results of cooperation.
"The first recommendation is to regularly show concrete cases, concrete actions, the presence here of foundations, embassies, teams, diplomats in the humanitarian sphere, in "The second is to be open to questions from the media and the public. We also need to use our sociology to draw conclusions and cement our relations, primarily trade ones," he added.
This is the third wave of research; the previous ones were held in August 2025 and March 2026. The survey was conducted in August 2026 using the method of self-completion of online questionnaires in the SunFlowerSociology panel. 800 citizens of Ukraine over the age of 18 were surveyed. According to the organizers, the sample is representative in terms of age, gender and region, the stated maximum theoretical statistical error at a confidence level of 95% is 3.5%.
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PyhaE-opCes
