On Tuesday, November 5, the 8th Ukrainian Women’s Congress took place in Kyiv. It is the annual public platform for gender policy-making. This year, the Congress took place under the slogan “Women’s Potential: New Roles, New Quality.” The discussion “Politics Without Women is a Threat to Democracy” included the Chair of the Board of the Civil Network OPORA, Olga Aivazovska. She believes that Ukraine’s key challenge is to clearly establish where we are and where we aspire to be as a state.

On October 22, 2024, Civil network OPORA held the second civic summit “(Dis)connected: rethinking social resilience in Ukraine”. The summit based itself on the results of joint research study on polarization of Ukrainian society, which was carried out by OPORA in cooperation with Kyiv School of Economics.

As of late October 2024, uncertainty about the prospects for ending the over-10-year war in Europe remains a key factor in encouraging the aggressive behavior of Putin’s Russia and its allies. North Korea’s de facto entry into the war leaves no doubt about the global nature of the confrontation, in which a group of authoritarian states is trying to destroy the world order that is based on respect for international law and the inviolability of borders, and, instead, establish a new world order where the right of force dominates.

Ukrainians have a neutral attitude towards their compatriots who went abroad and those who stay in Ukraine. The most favorable attitude is expressed towards those who joined the army and stopped consuming Russian content, while the most negative attitude is towards those who evade military service and consume Russian information products.

Findings of the study by the Civil Network OPORA and the Kyiv School of Economics, conducted by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology.

The study aimed to determine the degree of affective polarization in Ukrainian society. Unlike ideological polarization, which arises from differences in political or ideological positions, affective polarization describes the growth of social and emotional distance from other groups. It explains why cohesion and benevolence between different groups and individuals decrease. As part of the study, we assumed that Ukrainian society is divided into a certain number of groups according to their experience gained after the outbreak of a full-scale invasion.