The attitude of Ukrainians towards Serbia in August 2026 remains mostly neutral: this position is held by 53.4% of respondents. 22.7% of respondents evaluate the country positively, 20.3% negatively. Compared to March, the indicators have changed little, but in annual terms, the perception of Serbia has become noticeably better, reports the information and analytical center Experts Club.
According to the results of the August survey, 5.5% of Ukrainians have a completely positive attitude towards Serbia, mostly positive — 17.2%. 53.4% chose a neutral answer. For the most part, 17.6% evaluate the country negatively, 2.7% completely negatively, another 3.5% could not decide.
According to the rounded data of the table, the balance of positive and negative attitudes is about plus 2.4 percentage points. Thus, positive assessments 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, positive Serbia was viewed by 21.7% of respondents: 5.6% were completely positive and 16.1% were mostly positive. 55% took a neutral position, 19.6% evaluated the country negatively, and another 3.7% could not decide.
So, in five months, the positive segment grew by approximately 1 p.p. — up to 22.7%, the negative also slightly increased — by about 0.7 percentage points, while the share of neutral responses decreased by 1.6 percentage points. In fact, after a noticeable improvement recorded in the spring, the attitude stabilized.
The annual dynamics are much more pronounced. In August 2025, only 13.7% of Ukrainians had a positive attitude towards Serbia, and 26% had a negative attitude towards Serbia. By March 2026, the positive indicator increased to 21.7%, and the negative decreased to 19.6%. Thus, compared to August of last year, the positive attitude is now higher by about 9 pp, and the negative attitude is lower by almost 6 pp.
The founder of the Experts Club information and analytical center, Candidate of Economic Sciences Maksym Urakin connected the positive dynamics, in particular, with the more active work of the diplomatic mission of Serbia in Ukraine, which is headed by Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Andon Sapundzhi. The Serbian embassy reopened in Kyiv in 2025, and Sapundji publicly emphasized the need to resume active cooperation between the two countries.
"The results for Serbia show that Ukrainian society reacts quite sensitively to the foreign policy behavior of countries. The increase in positive ratings indicates a certain softening of perception, but the high level of neutrality means that the image of the country remains uncertain. In such cases, a key role is played by the sequence of actions and signals that form trust at the level of society. The activity of the Serbian delegation, led by the new ambassador, in humanitarian and economic initiatives and the establishment of interstate dialogue, certainly had a positive effect on the attitude of Ukrainians to this Balkan state," Urakin noted.
An additional factor in 2026, according to Maksym Urakin, was the noticeable revival of political and economic contacts between Kyiv and Belgrade. In May, a Serbian-Ukrainian business forum was held in Belgrade with the participation of more than 40 representatives of companies from the two countries. The forum discussed the resumption of negotiations on the free trade zone, the expansion of 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, Aleksandr Vučić, came to Kyiv for the Ukraine-Southeastern Europe summit, and in September he visited Ukraine again to participate in the Carpathian Summit.
In the first half of 2026 trade turnover of Ukraine with Serbia amounted to about $345.9 million, of which $102.7 million fell on Ukrainian exports and $243.2 million on imports of Serbian products. The negative balance for Ukraine was about $140.5 million.
The current results show that the long-term dynamics of the attitude towards Serbia is more positive than a year ago, but a significant neutral group — more than half of the respondents — leaves great potential for further shaping the country's image through diplomatic, humanitarian, cultural and economic contacts.
