Ukrainians' attitude to Serbia has improved noticeably over the year
An Experts Club study: although more than half of Ukrainians still view Serbia neutrally, over the year the share of positive assessments has risen noticeably while that of negative ones has fallen.
Ukrainians' attitude to Serbia in August 2026 remains mostly neutral: 53.4% of respondents take that position. 22.7% of those surveyed assess the country positively and 20.3% negatively. Compared with March the figures changed only slightly, but year on year the perception of Serbia has become noticeably better, the information and analytical centre Experts Club reports.
According to the August survey, 5.5% of Ukrainians view Serbia entirely positively and 17.2% mostly positively. 53.4% chose a neutral answer. 17.6% assess the country mostly negatively and 2.7% entirely negatively, while another 3.5% could not decide.
According to the rounded table data, the balance of positive and negative attitudes is about plus 2.4 percentage points. Positive assessments thus already slightly outweigh negative ones, although the difference remains small and more than half of Ukrainians continue to take a neutral position.
In March 2026, 21.7% of respondents viewed Serbia positively: 5.6% entirely positively and 16.1% mostly positively. 55% took a neutral position, 19.6% assessed the country negatively, and another 3.7% could not decide.
So over five months the positive segment grew by about 1 percentage point, to 22.7%; the negative one also rose slightly, by about 0.7 pp, while the share of neutral answers fell by 1.6 pp. In effect, after the noticeable improvement recorded in spring, attitudes have stabilised.
The year-on-year dynamic is far more telling. In August 2025 only 13.7% of Ukrainians viewed Serbia positively and 26% negatively. By March 2026 the positive figure had risen to 21.7% and the negative one had fallen to 19.6%. Compared with August last year, positive attitudes are now about 9 pp higher and negative ones almost 6 pp lower.
Maksym Urakin, founder of the information and analytical centre Experts Club and a candidate of economic sciences, linked the positive trend in part to the more active work of Serbia's diplomatic mission in Ukraine, headed by Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Andon Sapundzhi. The Serbian embassy resumed work in Kyiv in 2025, and Sapundzhi has publicly stressed the need to restore active cooperation between the two countries.
“The results on Serbia show that Ukrainian society reacts quite sensitively to countries' foreign-policy behaviour. The growth in positive assessments points to some softening of perception, but the high level of neutrality means the country's image remains undefined. In such cases the key role is played by the consistency of actions and signals that build trust at the level of society. The activity of the Serbian mission, headed by the new ambassador, in humanitarian and economic initiatives and in building interstate dialogue has undoubtedly had a positive effect on Ukrainians' attitude to this Balkan state,” Urakin noted.
An additional factor in 2026, in Maksym Urakin's view, was the marked revival of political and economic contacts between Kyiv and Belgrade. In May a Serbian-Ukrainian business forum was held in Belgrade with more than 40 company representatives from the two countries. The forum discussed resuming negotiations on a free-trade zone, expanding trade and the possibility of using Serbia as one of the logistics and business hubs for Ukrainian companies in the Balkans.
In addition, in July the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, came to Kyiv for the Ukraine — Southeast Europe summit and in September again visited Ukraine to take part in the Carpathian summit.
In the first half of 2026, Ukraine's trade turnover with Serbia was about $345.9 million, of which $102.7 million was Ukrainian exports and $243.2 million imports of Serbian products. The balance, negative for Ukraine, was about $140.5 million.
The current results indicate that the long-term trend in attitudes to Serbia is more positive than a year ago, but the large neutral group — more than half of respondents — leaves considerable potential for further shaping the country's image through diplomatic, humanitarian, cultural and economic contacts.
Source: Experts Club