In Ukraine, the attitude of state bodies towards citizens often directly contradicts the provisions of the Constitution, which declares a person to be the highest social value. The state should protect, support and provide citizens with adequate living conditions, but the reality, instead, often repels and causes despair. Indifference and rudeness, and often brutal aggression, have become commonplace in state institutions: in orphanages, children who have been left without a family face a lack of warmth and food; in hospitals, patients wait for months for the necessary care, and often do not receive it at all; students are forced to live in unacceptable conditions of dormitories, and pensioners and socially vulnerable people stand in endless queues.
This problem manifests itself especially acutely in wartime, when cohesion and support should be the primary tasks of the state. Instead of mobilizing forces to help their citizens, Ukrainians are often left alone with a system where they are perceived as a burden. In moments of crisis, when the country must stand up for its people, state bodies often turn into an obstacle. Citizens who have been abroad increasingly do not want to return, because there they experienced what the Constitution promises them at home – true respect for themselves as individuals. Ukraine risks losing those who no longer believe that the state really can and wants to fulfill its constitutional obligations.
The attitude of state institutions to the people
Article 3 of the Constitution of Ukraine solemnly proclaims: “A person, his life and health, honor and dignity, inviolability and security are recognized as the highest social value in Ukraine”. This is one of the basic principles on which Ukraine should be built — a state that stands for the protection of the rights and freedoms of each of its citizens. The Constitution states that it is human rights and their guarantees that determine the content and direction of state activity. The state should be accountable to people for its activities, but is it really accountable?
In reality, this basic provision of the Constitution remains a distant ideal. Ukrainians do not feel that they have the highest social value in their country. Bureaucracy, formality, queues, indifference and even rudeness and aggression are what a person faces every day in government institutions. Even for the most elementary services, people are forced to look for “their own”, negotiate, pay bribes or wait endlessly in queues. This situation clearly shows: the rights and freedoms of citizens, and even more so their dignity, are often secondary to the system.
Instead of building a people-oriented state, we continue to strengthen the bureaucratic apparatus that works for its own self-preservation. Children’s homes, hospitals, military commissariats, social services – in each of these sectors, instead of care and attention to the person, a formal approach and depreciation is observed. In hospitals, patients often meet not support, but indifference – lack of resources, low salaries of doctors, underfunding of the industry create an atmosphere where even human health, and sometimes life, recedes into the background.
The health care system, which was supposed to protect citizens, became another test for them. Hospitals are overflowing with patients who spend hours, days and sometimes weeks to receive basic medical care. Everyone knows that most often medicines, and sometimes diagnostic tools, have to be bought at one’s own expense. Bureaucracy, seasoned with rudeness and indifference, leads to the fact that people trust volunteers more than state medical institutions. Many people prefer to avoid hospitals, because it is difficult to solve the problem without “acquaintances” or monetary incentives. Against the background of the war, when Ukrainians need even more medical care, these problems have become critical. However, instead of improvement, patients receive only a helpless decrease in the quality of services and endless queues.
The problems in children’s homes in Ukraine are striking in their hopelessness. Children who have already gone through difficult trials are left without parental care and enter a system where instead of support they find only survival. The latest inspections by the Ombudsman showed shocking conditions: cold rooms, malnutrition, minimal care. Orphanages turn into places where neither development nor personal growth is heard. They are like a conveyor belt that churns out disillusioned, traumatized young people who find it hard to believe in a state that didn’t give them a chance. What then can be said about the prospects of such children, if even the most necessary things are not guaranteed to them?
Students in Ukraine are also not deprived of negligence. Dormitories where they live are often far from comfortable conditions. Living conditions in these places are so difficult that they do not contribute to learning or personal development. Dilapidated walls, overcrowded rooms, lack of normal sanitary conditions – all this encourages young people to think about moving to countries where they will be treated with respect. Young people who have been abroad often see a striking difference in the conditions and level of respect with which students are treated there. As a result, even more people do not want to return home, because they find it difficult to accept contempt as the norm of life.
In the period of war, when the state needs protection, the attitude towards military personnel and recruits should be exemplary. On the other hand, an unacceptable attitude often prevails in the TCC and military training centers. Instead of support and respect, new recruits face humiliation and outright rudeness. All this undermines motivation from the first days, because people see not preparation, but disdain, and instead of fighting spirit, they get bitter disappointment in the system that should support them.
Retirees who worked all their lives hoping for a secure old age are instead faced with a system where pension queues and minimum payments have become part of the everyday. People who have paid taxes all their lives are now forced to wait humiliatingly for hours to receive the necessary documents and often forfeit their earned pensions. And the payments they receive often do not cover even basic needs. They remain forgotten by a system that is indifferent to their merits, health and respect.
The attitude of the state towards officials and budget employees
One of the deep reasons for the indifferent attitude of state institutions towards citizens is the way the state itself treats its low-ranking employees and state employees. Under the pressure of poor pay, rigid bureaucracy and lack of prospects, ordinary civil servants increasingly do not hide their discontent and morally “burn out”, which ultimately affects their attitude towards citizens. Doctors, employees of public health centers, social services, and state institutions — everyone from whom citizens expect help every day — often transfer their negativity to visitors, patients, and students.
In Ukraine, the state’s attitude towards ordinary civil servants and budget employees has become a deep systemic problem that spills over onto citizens in the form of indifference and negativity. The state creates conditions in which state employees working in low-level positions feel constant pressure, fear of dismissal or not receiving bonuses, and lack of prospects. In such an atmosphere, initiative and diligence are discouraged and sometimes even punished. They remain depressed, and this dissatisfaction eventually affects their attitude towards those who come to them for help. This is how a closed circle is formed, in which disenfranchised civil servants and budget workers, working on the edge of survival, become a source of aggression and irritation for society.
The first example is the health care system. Doctors, nurses and other medical personnel perform a colossal amount of work under conditions of lack of resources and unbearable workloads. When a patient gets to the hospital, he often encounters an indifferent or even condescending attitude, and it’s not just a matter of overworked doctors. At the same time, salaries in the medical field are often so low that even experienced doctors feel inadequately evaluated and demotivated. That is why the system, which should be a safety net, turns into a bureaucratic machine, where the doctor, unable to help due to lack of resources, angrily tells the patient that he “must wait” or formally refers to his illness.
Education is another area where low motivation and poor working conditions affect society. Teachers, who are supposed to develop and inspire children, are often overworked, with endless reports, and their salaries barely cover basic needs. Instead of devoting their time and energy to educating the new generation, they are forced to pay attention to formalities just to satisfy the demands of the leadership and avoid punishment. When children come to school, they see in front of them not teachers-mentors, but exhausted and often irritated people, for whom work is simply a means of survival.
Social services are another level of the government system where grassroots workers face neglected working conditions and a lack of support. Employees of pension funds, ZHEKs, and social security offices have to serve thousands of people, but they themselves do not feel respect from the state or citizens. Constant complaints and onslaughts of criticism from visitors, endless queues and endless reports – all this becomes a daily routine for them, which, in the end, turns them into another obstacle for citizens. In ZHEK or the pension fund, officials, irritated by low pay and constant pressure, often perceive citizens’ requests as another burden. Instead of helping, they give only formal answers, limiting their communication to a minimum.
This situation not only undermines the motivation of civil servants and budget workers, but also creates an environment where every employee feels devalued. The state constantly demands loyalty from them, but does not provide adequate support or decent working conditions. In order to at least somehow compensate for this, employees of state institutions resort to formality and minimal performance of their duties, treating citizens with negligence and aloofness. Citizens, experiencing this attitude, lose confidence in the system and increasingly resent civil servants, who are perceived as part of an indifferent machine. In moments of crisis, when the country needs cohesion, this system not only does not improve, but on the contrary, strengthens the negative.
An alternative experience
Today, Ukrainians live in a world of contrasts. On the one hand, they are forced to serve in government institutions, where even the simplest questions turn into a test of patience. On the other hand, they use modern, convenient services provided by business — mobile banks, online stores, courier services, where everything happens quickly, without delays, and most importantly, with respect for the client. Today, the quality of service in the public sector significantly lags behind the standards that have already become the norm in the private sector. Many Ukrainians use services that work at the level of world standards every day, and they increasingly see the gap in quality between business and the state.
Private institutions in Ukraine have long surpassed public institutions in terms of quality of service and attitude towards clients. In a bank, you can open an account online in a few minutes, order a chat consultation, get feedback 24/7 – no queues, paper formalities and irritated faces. Compare that to a public bank or social services office, where you’ll probably have to spend half a day in line to get minimal help.
“Nova Poshta” is another example: in a few minutes, the client can send or receive a parcel, and in case of problems, the support service is ready to help instantly. Now imagine a state post office: queues, angry employees, lost parcels and the standard “our system is not working”. There you are not a customer, but an obstacle that is simply served.
Private medical clinics also show that it is possible otherwise. In a public hospital, queues, rudeness, lack of medicine and staff are waiting for you, while in a private clinic – respectful attitude, convenience, professional approach and attention to detail. Even the time of reception can be chosen, regardless of the lunch break, which in a state institution can be extended indefinitely.
Every interaction with the private sector highlights one fact: the customer is an asset, not a burden. The business knows that its success depends on satisfied customers, so it treats them with respect. In state structures, the client is just a number that must follow established rules, endure queues and formalities. And while private institutions provide services at the level of world standards, the public sector remains in the past, where the client has no right to expect more.
The state exists to serve its citizens, protect their rights and satisfy their needs – that’s how civilized countries are built. Successful states put the citizen at the center of their activities, because they understand: the future of the country is built on satisfied, free and confident people. There, state institutions work for people, not people serve the bureaucratic machine. Every citizen in such a system feels protected and confident, because he knows: the state will respond to his needs, and its services will help, not become another obstacle.
However, the reverse logic still exists in Ukraine. The system of public administration is built in such a way that the citizen is forced to adapt to its complexities, to the rules that were created not for his convenience, but for the convenience of the system itself. A person who applies for public services often becomes a hostage of endless queues, formalities and red tape. The state, which should be a protector and support, actually becomes a source of frustration and despair for its citizens. It seems to exist separately from people, continuing to work according to outdated standards, while Ukrainians are already accustomed to new levels of service and technology in the business sphere.
In conditions where people daily encounter modern technological services in banks, delivery, trade, and then enter a government institution, they feel as if they have returned decades ago. Instead of speed and simplicity, convenience and attention to their needs, citizens face endless queues, indifference, lack of a modern approach and even rudeness. Such discontinuity between private and public service alienates people from the state, undermines their belief that they are important. This makes citizens feel that they are nothing more than a statistical unit for the state.
As long as state structures remain indifferent to human needs and continue to work with outdated methods, without a true desire to change for the better, there is no hope of building a true democratic state that exists for its people. This leads to the fact that people lose their sense of responsibility to the state, become disillusioned with it and increasingly focus on the private sector, where their needs are taken into account and satisfied. Many Ukrainians who have already had the experience of living abroad return home with a critical understanding that the state should work for the people, not the other way around. This disappointment often becomes a barrier to return, because after getting used to a different attitude, it is difficult to accept back restrictions, indifference and lack of respect.
Ukraine should become a state that works for its people, providing citizens with convenient and dignified access to all services, supporting them at every stage of life. But, as long as this situation remains unchanged, until state institutions reorient themselves to the people, the country will lose the trust of its citizens. In order to build a strong, independent and just state, it is necessary for the system to understand its true purpose. Only then will Ukrainians be able to feel that their state exists for them, that they are worthy of the state helping them in life, protecting their rights and putting their needs first.
