A new public opinion poll conducted in April this year asked locals aged 18+ about Ukraine joining international unions. Almost a half of respondents want to see Ukraine to become a part of the European Union.
European Union integration: 46% say “Yes”
46% of surveyed Ukrainians support the country’s integration to the European Union), according to the results of a recent public opinion poll conducted by the Kiev International Institute of Sociology. However, only 9% of the respondents said “Yes” to joining the Eurasian Customs Union (EACU), Finance.ua reported.
The Eurasion customs Union was founded in 2010 by Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan. Armenia and Kyrgyzstan joined EACU in 2015. (Obviously, joining EACU would specify the country’s alignment with Russia.)
More than a third (32%) of the respondents believe that Ukraine should not rely on either EU membership or the Customs Union. 40% support integration to NATO, while about the same share of the people who took part in the survey (38%) are against it.
The survey also revealed that three quarters (75%) of locals believe that the government is leading the country in a wrong direction, and only 10% have the opposite opinion.
The poll included answers from over 2000 Ukrainians aged 18 years and older from 110 towns and cities and included residents of all country’s regions.
Ukraine’s economics
The most obvious factor for working locals is how much they earn and get as social payments (pensions, unemployment benefits, etc.). This is how citizens judge the country’s economic achievements, in the first place.
The average monthly wage in Ukraine was 7,711 hryvnia in January 2018, Ukrstat reported. It is about USD 295 according to the current exchange rate. However, the statistics do not include wages in small businesses that employ less than 10 people, where salaries are traditionally some of the lowest.
While the government promotes the growth in wages as its achievement, most locals complain that they do not get such “high” salaries as the advertised $295/month. The monthly minimum wage in the country is currently only 3723 hryvnia ($142) and many employees earn this amount per month. The next increase of the minimum wage is planned only for the next year.
In May 2018 you get 26 hryvnia for 1 US Dollar. The exchange rate has been reasonably stable since 2016.
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