This report presents the findings of an online survey conducted using an interactive structured questionnaire. A link to the questionnaire was sent to potential respondents from the database of the Kherson community’s research panel.
Research objective: To explore Kherson residents’ attitudes towards belonging to the Kherson community and its cohesion.
Key findings:
- Most respondents take a fairly inclusive view of who belongs to the Kherson community, generally continuing to recognise those who left after the start of the full-scale invasion as members. An exception concerns those who moved eastwards—to the aggressor state or temporarily occupied territories. However, residents currently living in Kherson expressed more conservative views than those living elsewhere, including internally displaced persons and people under temporary protection abroad. Those remaining in Kherson were more likely to believe that a Kherson resident is someone who lived in the city before the war and continues to live in the community today.
- Residents living in Kherson and those living elsewhere shared similar views on internally displaced people from other settlements who now live in Kherson. Half of respondents do not consider these internally displaced people to be Kherson residents. For 72%, registered residence in the community is the most important factor in determining membership. At the same time, 98% believe that support centres for internally displaced people from Kherson should be maintained in other regions of Ukraine.
- Among the behaviours associated with belonging to the Kherson community, active engagement predominates: maintaining contact with relatives and friends in the community (45%), paying utility bills (44%), and making donations to support the community (43%).
- Most respondents believe that the central authorities do not pay sufficient attention to the situation in Kherson. However, the report states that this view is more prevalent among those living elsewhere (16%) than among those currently in the city (22% in this subgroup).*
- Although love for the city and local patriotism are important reasons for half of respondents to remain in Kherson under such difficult conditions, practical considerations are the main reasons people stay. These include the high cost of renting accommodation in other regions of Ukraine (80%), the need to care for people who cannot leave Kherson (79%), and pets (56%).
- The proportion of respondents who consider the community cohesive has increased since the October 2024 survey, rising from 32% to 44%. The main factors bringing people together are shared danger (70%), the shared experience of living on the frontline (62%), and the shared experience of occupation (62%). At the same time, 45% believe that the difficult security situation also weakens community cohesion. Other factors undermining cohesion include psychological exhaustion (27%) and economic hardship (9%).
- The current survey wave confirmed a continuing rise in both national and local patriotism among Kherson residents. Today, 92% of respondents are proud to be from Kherson, and 85% are proud to be Ukrainian citizens. This increase reflects a growing proportion of respondents choosing the stronger response, “very proud”, rather than “somewhat proud”. Similar shifts were observed in respondents’ sense of involvement in the future development of both Ukraine and the Kherson city community.
- For Kherson residents today, community cohesion means less about organising activities that bring people together and more about preserving the community itself amid physical danger, forced displacement, and exhaustion. Safety is its basic prerequisite; support and fairness form the foundation of trust; communication and mutual assistance sustain connections; and a shared vision for Kherson’s recovery could underpin long-term cohesion. A recurring theme in most open-ended responses to the question “What do you think needs to be done most urgently today to strengthen cohesion among residents of the Kherson community?” is: “We must not be abandoned or forgotten.” This is reflected in calls for safety, material assistance, attention from the central authorities, honest communication, media visibility for Kherson, and support for those who have left. Thus, one of the central underlying dimensions of these responses is not simply cohesion, but a sense of belonging and confidence that a person remains a full member of the community, regardless of whether they currently live in Kherson or elsewhere.
The research was conducted by the Community Foundation of Kherson “Zakhyst” as part of the project “A Networked Community: Strengthening Cohesion and Resilience Among Kherson Residents”, with support from the “Phoenix: The Power of Communities” project, implemented by East Europe Foundation with funding from the European Union.
