The IYTT Blog
Democracy through the Eyes of Young Ukrainians
This is what we heard from 30 young Ukrainians in Spring 2025, thanks to a survey by the International Youth Think Tank (IYTT) and Youth Recovery Lab, a small think-tank formed by high school and undergraduate students who became finalists in the Youth Recovery Competition-a hackathon where high school students solve real-world problems connected with Ukrainian recovery.
Hopefulbut with Eyes Wide Open
Even with martial law in place, young Ukrainians are feeling cautiously optimistic about their country’s democratic future. It’s encouraging that six out of ten believe Ukraine is moving towards democracy, and almost three-quarters trust that elections are transparent.
However, they’re not blind to the challenges. A significant four out of five young people see signs of authoritarian tendencies in government or media. And when it comes to trust, it’s a bit fragile-only one in eight fully trusts institutions. What young people really want is to be involved in ways that feel safe and truly make a difference. They prefer practical, lower-risk actions like signing petitions and volunteering over more confrontational approaches.
Balancing Act:War Against Rights
Navigating democracy during wartime is like walking a tightrope between security needs and protecting civil rights. Our young respondents understand this tension well. They see progress in how democracy is governed and in election fairness, but they also point to authoritarian tendencies in the executive branch, military, media, and parliament.
This creates a challenging situation: young people deeply value participation, but many have limited trust and sometimes fear speaking openly. The main challenge for policymakers is to transform these strong pro-democratic feelings into safe, visible, and meaningful ways for young people to get involved.
What we found
Who We Talked To
We surveyed 30 young people, mostly 18–21 years old, from various major cities and regions. The group was evenly split between those in higher education and secondary education.
How They See Democracy
On average, respondents rated democracy today as “medium” quality. While 57% felt it was better five years ago, a hopeful six out of ten (60%) believe Ukraine is currently moving toward democracy.
Trust and Getting Involved
Elections are seen in a positive light, with 73% rating transparency as high (4 or 5 out of 5).
60% feel safe expressing their views “always,” but a significant one in three (33%) “sometimes fear” speaking openly
Trust in Institutions is Selective
While 73% expressed some level of trust, only 13% said they “fully trust” institutions.
The Desire to Engage is Strong
80% believe citizen activity is “very important.” Of the 57% who got involved in the past year, they preferred:
Petitions (77%)
Volunteering (53%)
Voting (47%)
Signs of Authoritarianism
A large majority-80%-reported noticing authoritarian tendencies somewhere in the state structure. The areas most often mentioned were the executive branch, military structures, the media, and parliament.
Six Ideasto Build a Stronger Democracy
These suggestions come directly from what young people told us they need: accountability, impact, and safety.
Speed Up Anti-Corruption Efforts & Rule of Law: Young people want to see faster reforms. This includes clear audits of how judges perform, easy online tracking of court cases, public declarations of assets, and strong protections for whistleblowers. The strong public support for anti-corruption bodies like NABU and SAPO shows just how important these changes are.
Make Sure Youth Voices are Heard in New Laws: Every new law and policy should be formally assessed for its impact on young people. This should include public reports and a clear way for youth feedback to be incorporated.
Protect Free Speech, But With Clear Boundaries: Restrictions under martial law need to be specific, temporary, and overseen independently. This will help reduce the “chilling effect” that currently makes one-third of young people afraid to speak openly.
Make Future Elections Super Transparent: We need to commit to making election data open, machine-readable, and available down to the precinct level. Election observers should be fully integrated, and there need to be strong, clear ways to fight disinformation.
Teach Civic and Media Smarts: Learning about civic engagement, how to analyze media, and how to spot disinformation should be a required part of education-from high school to university and in informal youth programs.
Give Young People Real Power and Resources: Existing youth councils should get dedicated budgets, and there should be mandatory quotas for youth participation in budgeting. Young representatives should also have seats on important city committees.
More Than Just a Show:What Young People Really Want
Our data highlights five clear themes that young Ukrainians want to see addressed.
Wartime Legitimacy Depends on Fair Processes: Young people clearly differentiate between fair elections (which they generally see as strong) and the use of power by the executive or security sectors (where they see authoritarian drift). They demand transparency and independent oversight as essential safeguards.
Participation Should Be Easy and Effective: Petitions and volunteering are popular because they feel safer and have clear, visible results. We need to create visible feedback loops (like dashboards for petitions) to make this engagement even better.
Trust Has to Be Earned, Not Assumed: Young people offer partial, not unconditional, trust. Policies must continually earn this trust through timely information, fair processes, and reliable service quality.
Free Expression Needs Clear Rules, Not Fear: Since one in three sometimes fears speaking, we need wartime restrictions that are narrowly defined, have clear boundaries, and include accountability to reduce this chilling effect without compromising security.
Young People Want Real Reforms, Not Just Symbolic Gestures: Their top priorities-rule of law, media freedom, and clean politics-are areas that build long-term democratic strength. They are looking for substantive change, not just performative actions.
Victoria Portnaya
Youth Fellow at the International Youth Think Tank since 2021, Victoria Portnaya is currently an Applied Mathematics Student and Natural Language Processing Lab Intern at Kyiv School of Economics (KSE). She is also a Chatham House CFC member, a volunteer for the Center for Civil Liberties, and was a panel speaker at the Athens Democracy Forum 2023.
The views expressed in this paper are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the IYTT.
