You’re happy, aren’t you? Then why change anything?

KIIS survey on the percentage of happy people in Ukraine. Photo: KIIS website

The Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) conducted a survey in which 71% of Ukrainians described themselves as happy. Another 11%, when asked whether they were happy, answered “yes and no,” while only 16% said they did not consider themselves happy.

What can one say?

In a country

• where a horrific war is raging and people are dying every day;
• where hundreds of thousands of displaced people have lost their homes;
• where people regularly spend nights in subway stations sheltering from attacks and rely on antidepressants;
• where the country’s leadership is mired in staggering corruption;
• where men hide from TRC officers and cross mountains to flee the country;
• where no one knows how they will make it through the coming winter – three out of four people say they are happy.

American negotiators have once again stepped up their efforts to end the war and bring peace closer. And right on cue, along comes this remarkable poll. It seems to be telling the U.S. authorities: Look, Ukrainians like living this way. They’re not just satisfied with everything – they’re happy. They don’t need peace, so why change anything?

Incidentally, KIIS and other polling organizations regularly publish surveys on which religious denominations Ukrainians identify with. According to the latest KIIS survey, for example, the OCU supposedly has nine times as many adherents as the UOC. And even that is not the widest gap: the Razumkov Center puts the difference at twelvefold.

Not long ago, NABU made public government “talking-point directives” for working with the media. They also mentioned sociological experts who were tasked with promoting certain narratives.

Of course, we have no grounds to claim that the happiness survey was one of them. Probably just a coincidence.

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